Old Ship Saloon
You can still visit the old ship saloon today. In 1849, at the height of the Gold Rush, stormy seas drove the ship Arkansas aground on Alcatraz Island, and the wreckage was towed to shore along the city’s notorious Barbary Coast. In 1851, the ship started its second life as a bar. A gangplank led to the entrance cut from the side of the ship, with a sign reading “Gud, bad and indif’rent spirits solds here! At 25 cents each.”