Alcatraz as a Tourist Attraction

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Recommended: The age of prohibition

It's 1934, prohibition is the law, and organized crime is booming. You've been convicted of tax evasion and have spent the last couple years at the Atlanta U.S. Penitentiary. With several thousand dollars stuffed in the hollow handle of your tennis racket, and a warden in your pocket, you've been living life like a king. But all that's about to come to and end, you find yourself standing on Pier 41, Fisherman's Warf, San Francisco bay. It's early morning and the fog obscures your view. As it starts to lift and recede into the ocean, it takes along with it all forms of courage and hope that still remain within you. All that's left is the view before you, twenty-two acres of solid granite surrounded by a fast moving sea of icy waters. Your name is Al Capone, and you've been sentenced to carry out the last nine years of your eleven-year sentence at the most infamous prison in U.S. History, "The Rock."

Alcatraz is no longer a federal penitentiary, nor does it house any inmates. Instead, it has become a tourist attraction that allows hundreds of people a day the opportunity to experience what time served may have felt like at "The Rock." The island sits about a mile and a half off the coast of the Fisherman's Warf in the San Francisco Bay. Daily tours are available through the Blue & Gold Fleet at all hours of the day with reasonable rates. Although it is still safe to venture around most of the island, it becomes apparent, once there, that time and vandalism have taken their toll on its structure. Most buildings were built in the late 1800's or early 1900's, and many of the houses have been subject to fire, while other buildings show signs of weathering. The tours available are self-guided with or without digital audiotape. ...

... middle of paper ...

...lace. New York: Plume. (pp. 41-81)

Liebert, Julius (1965). Behind Bars: What a Chaplain Saw in Alcatraz, Folsom, & San Quentin. Doubleday & Company Incorporated

Lofgren, O. (1999). On holiday: A history of vacationing. Berkeley: University of California. Press.

Quillaen, Jim (1991). Alcatraz From Inside. Golden Gate National Parks Ass.

Risse, M. (1998). White knee socks versus photojournalist vests: Distinguishing between travelers and tourists. In C.T. Williams' (Ed.), Travel culture: Essays on what makes us go (pp. 41-50). Westport, CT: Praeger.

Sontag, S. (1999). On photography. In D. Crowley & P. Hayer's (Eds.), Communication in history: Technology, culture, society (pp. 174-178). New York: Longman.

The National Park Service (2001). Alcatraz Island: Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Available: http://www.nps.gov/alcatraz [November 15, 2001]

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