Picture of the Day for 10/21/2011. My niece Renee and I are in San Francisco spending the weekend visiting Renee's sister (and my niece) Michelle. Today was devoted to tourist-y activities. We started off with a tour of the downtown/wharf area in an open-air car.
Of course the tour made a stop at the Golden Gate Bridge. Check out the building at the base of the bridge. I never realized there was a fort there. To quote the National Park Service website, "Fort Point was built between 1853 and 1861 by the U.S. Army Engineers as part of a defense system of forts planned for the protection of San Francisco Bay."
Fort Point Interior.
After the city tour, we hopped on a boat to Alcatraz Island for a tour of the federal prison which was in operation from 1934 through 1963.
Below is a picture of where the knives used to hang in the prison kitchen. This part of the guided audio tour made us laugh (squeamishly). The recording talks about how, despite the best precautions, some kitchen knives were stolen by prisoners to use against other prisoners. This tidbit of information is accompanied by the sound of someone being stabbed in the background. Eek. It's a re-enactment performed by actors of course, but it still sounds rather graphic. It's shocking the first time you hear it. Michelle and I had been on the tour a few years ago so we knew what to expect. We couldn't wait to see the look on Renee's face when she heard the sounds.
View of the San Francisco skyline from Alcatraz Island.
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