Alcatraz Island

Alcatraz Island, situated 1.25 miles offshore in San Francisco Bay, served as a federal penitentiary from 1934 to 1963, housing some of the United States' most dangerous criminals in one of the most isolated and escape-resistant facilities ever operated. The island's documented history of confinement predates the federal prison: the U.S. Army established a military installation there in the 1850s and used it as a military prison from 1861, housing Civil War prisoners and later Native American detainees. The Army maintained the facility until 1934, when the Department of Justice converted it into a federal penitentiary designed for inmates too dangerous or disruptive for other federal facilities. Among its most notable inmates were gangster Al Capone, held from 1934 to 1939; kidnapper George 'Machine Gun' Kelly; and Robert Stroud, the self-taught ornithologist known as the Birdman of Alcatraz, though he kept his birds at Leavenworth rather than Alcatraz. The prison closed in March 1963 primarily because operating costs were roughly three times those of comparable mainland institutions. In November 1969, a coalition of Native American activists occupied the island for 19 months, asserting treaty rights under the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie and drawing national attention to Indigenous land claims and federal Indian policy. Alcatraz is today part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area administered by the National Park Service. The cellhouse, with its four cell blocks, D-Block solitary confinement wing, dining hall, hospital ward, and warden's residence ruins, remains largely intact. The Cellhouse Audio Tour, narrated by former inmates and guards, is widely regarded as one of the finest audio tours in the United States. The island also features the oldest active lighthouse on the Pacific Coast and shoreline gardens maintained by the Garden Conservancy.