Alcatraz

Alcatraz Island in 2005

Alcatraz Island (37°49′35″N, 122°25′21″W) is located in the middle of San Francisco Bay in California. It was formerly used as a military stockade and later as a maximum security prison. Today, the island is a historic site supervised by the National Park Service as part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and is open to tours. Visitors can reach the island by ferry ride from Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. It is listed as a National Historic Landmark. Its name comes from the Spanish (and originally Arabic) word for the gannet, a kind of seabird. It was first discovered by Juan Manuel de Ayala.

It is home to the now abandoned prison, the oldest operating lighthouse on the West Coast of the United States, early military fortifications, and natural features such as rock pools, a seabird colony, and unique views of the coastline.

History

The interior of a regular cell in the row known as Broadway.

Alcatraz was a military fort from 1850 to 1933. The United States Disciplinary Barracks on Alcatraz were acquired by the United States Department of Justice on October 12, 1933. The island became a federal prison on August, 1934. During the 29 years it was in use, the jail held such notable criminals as Al Capone; Robert Franklin Stroud, the Birdman of Alcatraz; and Alvin Karpis, who served more time at Alcatraz than any other inmate. It also provided housing for the Bureau of Prison staff and their families. Today the family members that occupied the island and called it home can join the Alcatraz Alumni Association and participate in the annual reunion that celebrates the opening of the prison the second weekend of August. Most family members have favorite stories they share of their experiences growing up on the rock.

The penitentiary was closed for good on March 21, 1963. The prison closed because it was far more expensive to operate than other prisons of the time and the pollution problem since all sewage went directly into the bay from the approximately 250 inmates and 60 Bureau of Prison families that occupied the island. It was easier to build a new, traditional land-bound prison than to pay for all the upkeep and support the Alcatraz prison required.

In 1969, a group of Native Americans affiliated with the American Indian Movement attempted to reclaim the land, saying that an 1868 federal treaty allowed Native Americans to use all federal territory that the government was not actively using. After nearly two years of occupation, the government forced them off.

The island is also known as "The Rock," and it was featured in a movie of the same name.

Escape attempts

A souvenir "Alcatraz prisoner tag". These were never actually used at Alcatraz, only sold to the public as novelties.

During its 29 years of operation, the penitentiary never logged any officially successful escapes. In all attempts escapees were either shot dead or believed to be drowned in the frigid San Francisco Bay. Thirty-six prisoners were involved in attempts; seven were shot and killed, two drowned, five unaccounted for, the rest recaptured. Two prisoners made it off the island but were returned, one, in 1945 and one in 1962. Three escapees, Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin, disappeared from their cells on June 11, 1962. This attempt, popularized in the motion picture Escape from Alcatraz, was among the most intricate ever devised. Though only some evidence was found that they died in their attempt, they are officially listed as "missing and presumed drowned." Plywood paddles and parts of a raft made from raincoats were found on Angel Island by the FBI. It is very likely that they did die in their attempt as, after all these years, no one has surfaced claiming to be or even to have seen the escapees.

In 2003, Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage, the co-hosts of the television series MythBusters, sought to prove whether the escapees could have survived. Using similar materials to those used by the three convicts, they constructed an inflatable raft from a large quantity of rubber raincoats and made plywood paddles. Hyneman and Savage selected a date when the tide direction and rate matched that of the escape attempt. With another crew member standing in for the third prisoner, they were able to paddle with the outgoing tide to the Marin Headlands, near the North tower of the Golden Gate Bridge. Both Hyneman and Savage agreed, however, with the theory that the real prisoners did not survive.

The Rock, as viewed from San Francisco

Conversely, tests using the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers scale model of San Francisco Bay indicated that paddles or other debris thrown into the water from the landing location would be carried by the returning tide to Angel Island. This proved that escape was possible with the resources available to the escapees and provided an explanation for the location of the escape debris found by the FBI.

See also

• Islands of San Francisco Bay
• San Quentin State Prison, which is nearby and still in use
• Château d'If, a former island-prison in southeastern France

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Alcatraz Island

• National Park Service - Alcatraz Official Website
• Federal Bureau of Prisons - A Brief History of Alcatraz
• California State Military Museum - Post at Alcatraz Island
• Report on the 1962 escape incident (from the FBI's FOIA electronic reading room)
• Photographs of Alcatraz, Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco
• Alcatraz Interactive Virtual Tour
• ALCATRAZ HISTORY .com
• Satellite view by Google maps

• Maps and aerial photos
  • Street map from MapQuest or Google Local
  • Topographic map from TopoZone
  • Aerial image from TerraServer-USA
  • Satellite image from Google Local or Microsoft Virtual Earth