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ALCATRAZ - CALIFORNIA AHOY!!!

CALIFORNIA AHOY !!! is the happy cry of sailors and passengers after a tiresome Pacific Ocean crossing for weeks and sighting the promised land of America and California during the 19th century. Today in the highly technological world this can be done in a few hours. Our son in law and daughter meticulously planned our trip to California to the last detail. Everything on line.

We started our journey from our hometown Denver Colorado boarded united airlines wide bodied Boeing 777 200 jet airliner. It is a two aisle with nine seats in a row. The plane is powered by two powerful turbofan jet engines manufactured by GENERAL ELECTRIC. Each engine produces a thrust of 93,000 pounds. Turbofan engines are great engineering marvels which makes the air travel very pleasant and quieter and cheaper too. Nealy 80 percent of the engines thrust comes from the air intake by the huge turbofans mounted in front of the engine. The air intake reduces the use of fuel. The turbofan engines are very economical thereby cutting the cost of air travel. A 100-dollar air ticket without the turbofan engine will cost you 800 dollars. So, when you travel next time with your family children and grandchildren tell them about the marvel of turbofan engines which take you to your destination cheaply quietly and comfortably. I shall explain in great detail about turbofan engines when I write about turbines in my next blog.

We reached San Francisco in two hours and thirty minutes. After claiming our baggage, we got our reserved vehicle. The vehicle was Toyota 5-seater SUV. This was our vehicle to go round San Francisco and its suburbs. We headed towards our hotel Marriott in a suburb called Pleasanton. Pleasanton is 46.5 miles east of San Francisco International Airport. It took us 1 hour 5 minutes to reach our hotel. We had to drive over Oakland Bridge crossing the San Francisco Bay. San Francisco Bay is 60 miles long and 3 to 12 miles wide and is one of the world’s finest natural harbours.

There are 8 Bay Area Bridges that cross the San Francisco Bay and Delta. Among them the most famous one is the GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE is one of the wonders of the modern world. This bridge is San Francisco’s famous landmark. The bridge was opened in 1937 after a four-year struggle against relentless winds, fog and treacherous tides. The iconic Golden Gate Bridge got its name after the Golden Gate Strait which is the entrance to the San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. The Golden gate Bridge has two main towers which hold the main two cables which holds the traffic road cables. The total length of the bridge from abutment to abutment is 1.7 miles. Let me start my narrative like a travelogue. We start of with the golden gate bridge. The chief Engineer of this bridge was Joseph Strauss

Statute of Joseph Strauss Chief Engineer of Golden Gate Bridge

Statue of Joseph Strauss with details

San Francisco area is cooler by 10 degrees than hot mainland. This is due to its position on the tip of the peninsula surrounded by very cold Pacific Ocean water. San Francisco benefits from the contrast between the cold ocean current and extreme heat of California’s Central Valley. The result is a pretty steady on shore flow of cool air pulled by the stifling hot air in land. This also pulls the famous fog inland into the city. My photographs show this fog.

The First abutment fixing and connecting the bridge with San Francisco city with cables

Coffer dam with the first tower resting on it near San Francisco city

Alcatraz Island view from San Francisco city

Situated about 1.25 miles offshore from the city of San Francisco ALCATRAZ ISLAND received its name from Spanish naval officer Juan Manual de Ayala Aranza in 1775 while chartering the San Francisco Bay. The island had little vegetation and was a sea bird habitat, today we know as Pelicans. Juan Manual named the island ISLA DE LOS ALCATRACES ISLAND OF PELICANS. The Spanish government sold this island to US government in 1849. Alcatraz was the site of the first light house on the coast of California in 1854 Alcatraz Island is located in the middle of San Francisco Bay approximately 1.25 miles from the norther shore of San Franc Peninsula. The area of Alcatraz is about 22 acres. Out of this the prison area occupies about 22, 500 square feet area. It is a high security federal penitentiary.

The name San Francisco (Spanish for Saint Francis) was founded on 29th June 1776, when colonists from Spain established Presidio of San Francisco at the at the present-day Golden Gate bridge starting area and mission San Francisco de Assisi named after St. Francis of Assisi a few miles away.

To go to Alcatraz Island, we have to board a ferry at Pier Number 33. It takes about 15 minutes to reach Alcatraz Island which is North of San Francisco city.

Waiting Area for the ferry boat

The ferry boat to Alcatraz

San Francisco city from the ferry boat

San Francisco City is on the San Francisco Peninsula. A peninsula is a land mass jutting into a water body either a bay or ocean. If you look at the map San Francisco Peninsula opens up in the west into the mighty Pacific Ocean. Originally Alcatraz prison was a military prison finished building it in 1912. The US Army gave the prison to the department of Justice in 1933. Alcatraz became maximum security prison on July 1 1934. The Alcatraz prison closed its doors on March 21, 1963 at the orders of then Attorney General Robert Kennedy. The prison was closed because of two reasons. One transporting food and fresh water for prisoners became very expensive. Secondly the salty air of the bay made the prison construction very brittle.

Alcatraz from ferry boat

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Alcatraz prison buildings from ferry boat

Watch tower

Alcatraz from ferry boat

Prison buildings in three levels

Prison Entrance

The sea gull native bird of the Alcatraz Island

Watch tower and San Francisco Bay from prison ramparts

Prisoners’ belongings are kept here as they enter the prison

shower stall for prisoners

Water boilers for hot water

prisoners cell

prison cells in three levels

prison cell closer view

prison cells in three levels

dining hall entrance

food serving window

dining hall

food serving counter

maximum security kitchen

prisoners dining

regulation

last manu bfore closing the prison

risoner ?

prisoner ?

oldest light house in the USA with San Francisco city in the background in Alcactraz island

back to San Francisco

back to San Francisco

napa valley grape garden

napa valley grape garden

napa valley grape bunch

Napa Valley wine country is located in Northern Californ50 miles north was our final destination during our visit to California east of San Francisco. This was our final destination during our visit to California. Napa Valley enjoys a Mediterranean climate hot dry day temperature and cool night temperature makes it ideal for grape cultivation. Clayey loam soil with moderate rain makes it ideal for the cultivation of grapes.

I should thank our son in-law Hari our daughter Sukanya and grand daughters Meghana and Maya for taking me around many times holding my hand in difficult terrain. I should thank them for carrying my camera with two heavy telephoto lenses.

I used my camera Nikon D5300 with telephoto lens of focal length of 18 mm to 140 mm to take all the pictures presented here.

Finally, we boarded our plane in San Francisco to go back to Denver Colorado on the 17th July 2023. The plane was a Boeing 737 with only one aisle with two turbo fan jet engines

Professor K.A. Balasubramanian

Ph.D. (IARI NEW DELHI) Ph.D. (Imperial College London) DIC (Imperial College London)