Alcatraz Island - Home of the West Coast's First Working Lighthouse

Alcatraz = lighthouses? Not exactly the association that first comes to mind, is it? Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelly, or maybe Robert Stroud, The Birdman of Alcatraz, sure, but who even notices that old lighthouse? In fact, the original lighthouse on Alcatraz Island was the first of eight lighthouses authorized by the US Congress as a response to Gold Rush era maritime traffic. What a relief it must have been on June 1, 1854 when the Alcatraz Island Fresnel lens first beamed its light toward the Golden Gate.

You’ll get a good look at Alcatraz Island on your way out of San Francisco Bay at the start of your whale watching trip. Generally, there’s not much boat traffic in the Bay at that hour so maybe it’ll be easier to recall Alcatraz’s early history without the distractions of modern marine and urban bustle. The 84 foot tall light tower you see today was a 1909 replacement for the first light house after it was both damaged in the 1906 earthquake and rendered ineffective by the encroaching new military prison being built alongside.

The original lighthouse sat centered atop a two story keepers’ cottage. Imagine a tower sitting on the roof of one of the old keepers’ cottages on South Farallon Island and you get the picture. In fact, all of the original eight authorized lighthouses began with the same general blueprint. (On the Farallones, the keepers’ cottages sit alone while the disembodied light tower sits perched atop the highest cliff.)

The original light tower itself was 50 feet tall and often insufficient to penetrate the Bay’s thick fog so two bell fog signals were also built, one each on the North and South sides of the island. Why giant 4,000-pound fog bells were used instead of a fog horn system is unclear. The bells were suspended from the porches of small outbuildings. No “turn the music down or you’ll ruin your hearing” option for that generation of lighthouse keepers’ children - imagine the tinnitus!


Photos and text by Kathleen Jacques.