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Alcatraz Island (/ ˈ æ l k ə ˌ t r æ z /) is a small island 1.25 miles (2.01 km) offshore from San Francisco, California, United States. [1] The island was developed in the mid-19th century with facilities for a lighthouse, a military fortification, and a military prison.
The former prison and island are now a museum. It is one of San Francisco's major tourist attractions drawing in some 1.5 million visitors annually (2010). [19] [20] Visitors arrive by boat and are given a tour of the cellhouse and island, and a slide show and audio narration with anecdotes from former inmates, guards and rangers on Alcatraz. [21]
The wharf, or boat dock, was established on Alcatraz in the 1850s to permit the landing of men and building materials to construct a fort completed in 1859. In 1867, the General McPherson was built to serve the island and other military institutions in the San Francisco Bay Area, as Alcatraz became a long-term military prison from 1868. The ...
Alcatraz Island – site of a Civil War fort, military prison, and the infamous Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary; China Beach – a small beach located north of the Sea Cliff district in San Francisco near the Presidio of San Francisco; Fort Funston – a former coastal fortification and Nike missile site SF-59L; now a popular hang gliding spot
Alcatraz was barely affected by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake which devastated the city, and the prison population dramatically increased as prisoners were temporarily transferred to the island due to damage in the city. [6] In 1907, Alcatraz Citadel ceased function as a military defense and became the Pacific Branch, U.S. Military Prison ...
TIL Greenland is portrayed about 14x larger than its actual size on most maps. ... John Paul Scott is the only inmate from Alcatraz to escape the prison by swimming all the way to San Francisco ...