4 - Flank Defense Howitzer

WAYSIDE LAYOUT: Cream colored, horizontally oriented panel with a dark banner running across the top. The banner reads “Golden Gate National Recreation Area” on the left and the National Park Service logo on the right. The panel has two columns. The first column has text above two images, places horizontally next to one another. The second column features 1 image. There is a large background image that spans the entire wayside.  

BACKGROUND IMAGE: A faded sepia colored image of buildings in San Francisco from above. The image starts at the bottom of the wayside fades towards the middle of the wayside.  

CAPTION: Booming development in San Francisco, sparked by the Gold Rush, made military defense of the city a top priority. San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park.  

FIRST COLUMN:  

TEXT: Flank Defense Howitzer: Mighty and far-reaching firepower. In 1866, Alcatraz’s sole role was to protect San Francisco and the army had emplaced one hundred eleven cannons along the island’s perimeter. The fort’s Rodman guns could shoot 440 – pound cannonballs three miles. The smallest artillery guns, howitzers like the one you see here, were loaded with canisters of small balls. Had hostile troops stormed up the road from the dock, the guardhouse howitzers would have torn them to pieces.  

DESCRIPTION #1: Colored graphic illustration of Alcatraz Island. The island is denoted by green surrounded by blue water. The buildings are shown and labeled as they were when the military was here in 1866.  

CAPTION: Military Era, 1866. Gun batteries were positioned to defend the harbor and city against invaders who never came.  

DESCRIPTION #2: Black and white photograph of Rodman cannons lining the batteries of the fort, aimed out over the bay.  

CAPTION: Military Era, 1864. Alcatraz’s largest cannon were mounted in open batteries on the west side of the island, facing the Golden Gate. Sacramento History Center Collection.  

SECOND COLUMN:  

DESCRIPTION: Black and white photograph of over a dozen soldiers tending to a cannon. The soldiers are cleaning, aiming and loading the cannon. One soldier is pointing in the direction of the cannon, to the right of the image.  

CAPTION: Military Era, 1869. Alcatraz’s Rodman guns weighed 50,000 pounds each and required a crew of more than a dozen men. Though there were more than 400 soldiers on the island in 1965, the men would have had to move between the fort’s cannon, depending on the enemy’s location, had the island been attacked. Bancroft Library _____ Maybridge Collection