Alcatraz is a small island located in San Francisco Bay and is famous because of the prison that was located on the island.
Let’s find out more about the island!
- Alcatraz Island is located in San Francisco Bay, 1.25 miles (2.01 km) offshore from San Francisco, California, United States.
- The small island was developed with facilities for a lighthouse, a military fortification, a military prison, and a federal prison.
- The latter operated from August 11, 1934 until March 21, 1963.
- The strong currents around the island and cold water temperatures made escape all but impossible.
- Since the late 20th century, it has become a major tourist attraction.
- Beginning in November 1969, the island was occupied for more than 19 months by a group of Native Americans, initially primarily from San Francisco.
- They were later joined by AIM and other urban Indians from other parts of the country, who were part of a wave of Native American activists organizing public protests across the US through the 1970s.
- In 1972, Alcatraz was transferred to the Department of Interior to become part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
- It was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1986.
- Today, the island’s facilities are managed by the National Park Service as part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
- Visitors can reach the island in fewer than 15 minutes by ferry ride from Pier 33, located between the San Francisco Ferry Building and Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco.
- Hornblower Cruises, operating under the name Alcatraz Cruises, is the official ferry provider to and from the island.
- Alcatraz Island is the site of the abandoned federal prison, the oldest operating lighthouse on the West Coast of the United States, early military fortifications, and natural features such as rock pools and a seabird colony (mostly western gulls, cormorants, and egrets).
- According to a 1971 documentary on the history of Alcatraz, the island measures 1,675 feet (511 m) by 590 feet (180 m) and is 135 feet (41 m) at highest point during mean tide.
- The total area of the island is reported to be 22 acres (8.9 ha).
- Landmarks on the island include the Main Cellhouse, Dining Hall, Lighthouse, the ruins of the Warden’s House and Social Hall, Parade Grounds, Building 64, Water Tower, New Industries Building, Model Industries Building, and the Recreation Yard.
- The first European to document the islands of San Francisco Bay was Spanish naval officer and explorer Juan Manuel de Ayala during Spanish rule of California.
- He charted San Francisco Bay in 1775.
- He named today’s Yerba Buena Island as “La Isla de los Alcatraces”, which translates as “The Island of the Gannets” but is commonly believed to translate as “The Island of the Pelicans” (the modern Spanish word for ‘pelican’ is pelícano), from the archaic Spanish alcatraz (“pelican”).
- There are no gannets native to the Pacific coast, making the older Spanish usage more likely.
- Al Capone was among the first prisoners to occupy the new Alcatraz federal prison in August 1934.
- Capone had bribed guards to receive preferential treatment while serving his tax-evasion sentence in Atlanta, but that changed after his transfer to the island prison. The conditions broke Capone.In fact, Convict No. 85 became so cooperative that he was permitted to play banjo in the Alcatraz prison band, the Rock Islanders, which gave regular Sunday concerts for other inmates.
- There were no confirmed prisoner escapes from Alcatraz.
- A total of 36 inmates put the supposedly “escape-proof” Alcatraz to the test. Of those convicts, 23 were captured, six were shot to death and two drowned.
- In spite of his nickname, the “Birdman of Alcatraz” had no birds in the prison.
- Military prisoners were Alcatraz’s first inmates.
- Alcatraz was home to the Pacific Coast’s first lighthouse.
- In 1962, prisoner John Paul Scott bent the bars of a kitchen window and swam to shore. He was so exhausted upon reaching the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge that police discovered him lying unconscious in hypothermic shock.
- Today, hundreds complete the 1.5-mile swim annually during the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon.
- Inmates requested transfers to Alcatraz.
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