No visit to San Francisco is complete without a boat ride across the bay to Alcatraz. Most people have heard the name, but not everyone knows exactly what it is or why this small rocky island became one of the most famous prisons in the world.
Alcatraz sits just over two kilometres from the city, close enough that you can hear fog horns and see the lights of downtown at night. Long before it was a jail, the island served as a military fortress and later housed the first lighthouse on the American West Coast. In 1934 it was converted into a federal penitentiary, a place designed for the hardest cases in the American prison system. If you caused too much trouble you ended up on The Rock.
Between 1934 and 1963 more than 1,500 men served time there. Big names passed through including Al Capone and George Machine Gun Kelly. The prison was built for discipline and isolation. Surrounded by freezing water and strong currents, escape was considered almost impossible.
We chose the evening tour. The ferry leaves in the late afternoon and the city skyline glows as you pull away from the pier. By the time the boat reaches the island the sun is dropping behind the Golden Gate Bridge and the whole bay turns a deep golden colour. Watching San Francisco light up as night falls is worth the ticket price on its own.
Walking onto the island, one of the biggest surprises is how pretty parts of it are. The gardens scattered around the pathways are beautiful. Originally planted by military families and later maintained by prisoners, they were abandoned when the prison closed but in recent years volunteers have restored them.
Inside the main prison block the mood changes quickly.
The audio tour, narrated by former guards and inmates, guides you through the long corridors and cramped cell tiers. You stand inside rooms barely bigger than a cupboard and imagine years of life reduced to a narrow bed, a metal sink and a view through iron bars.
From the exercise yard you look straight across the water to San Francisco. For the men locked inside Alcatraz, seeing freedom every day must have been a special kind of torment and it is easy to understand why so many tried to escape.
Over the 29 years the prison operated there were 14 escape attempts involving 36 prisoners. Most were caught quickly, some were shot, and others were dragged back out of the bay half frozen. Officially, no one ever escaped Alcatraz alive, but there is one story that keeps the mystery alive.
Three prisoners, Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin, put into action the most daring breakout the prison had ever seen. For months they quietly chipped away at the concrete around the air vents in their cells using stolen spoons and homemade tools. On the night of 11 June 1962 they climbed through the holes, crawled into a service corridor and made their way to the roof. Waiting for them was a raft they had stitched together from stolen raincoats and sometime after midnight the three men lowered themselves into the water and paddled into the dark.
They were never seen again.
Whether they survived or not, it remains one of the most fascinating prison escapes in history.
Alcatraz alone would justify the long flight from Australia, but the city offers plenty more reasons to make the trip.
You can wander ancient redwood trees at Muir Woods, head to the relaxed wine region of Sonoma, a must for seafood lovers is Fisherman’s Wharf for some clam chowder, ride a cable car or walk across the Golden Gate Bridge.
San Francisco has character, history and scenery in equal measure. But it is the visit to Alcatraz that brings it all together. It is part museum, part mystery and part living reminder of a very different time.
