Oh wow. Didn’t know it had shut down. Guess I’m in the lucky gang to have seen it while it was still a tourist attraction. Definitely one of the cooler things I saw in the US.
I’m surprised it wasn’t making money. It was very busy when I was there which was in September (1998 iirc).
It’s about 300+ visitors per hour averaged out over the whole year given opening times / holidays. It’s a small assed island that requires a ferry to get to so honestly not bad. IMO.
It’s also very very far from Europe where I guess a decent chunk of US visitors come from.
Lost tourist revenue from that would surely be enormous.
Edit: apparently not. Wikipedia says:
Yea, it was shut down because it was too expensive to run. Republicans now: “as long as the undesirables are locked up, lets do it.”
Oh wow. Didn’t know it had shut down. Guess I’m in the lucky gang to have seen it while it was still a tourist attraction. Definitely one of the cooler things I saw in the US.
I’m surprised it wasn’t making money. It was very busy when I was there which was in September (1998 iirc).
the news this morning said it attracted “about a million visitors per year”. in SF? that’s crazy low.
It’s about 300+ visitors per hour averaged out over the whole year given opening times / holidays. It’s a small assed island that requires a ferry to get to so honestly not bad. IMO.
It’s also very very far from Europe where I guess a decent chunk of US visitors come from.
good point about the size…
It hasn’t operated as a prison for decades, it’s a tourist attraction run by the Parks Dept. I think.
Oh I meant as a tourist attraction :) last time I was in SF was 2019 and and it was still open to the public. I misunderstood your comment