In 1775 a Spanish explorer named Juan Manuel de Ayala came upon the rugged Alcatraz Island and christened it La Isla de los Alcatraces, or Island of the Pelicans, owing to its large population of sea birds. In 1850 President Millard Fillmore (1800-74) signed an order reserving the island for military use.
A huge fortress was constructed on Alcatraz in the 1850’s and around 100 cannons were installed around the island to protect San Francisco Bay.
The Army began incarcerating military prisoners at Alcatraz, which seemed an ideal location since it was isolated from the mainland by the cold strong waters of San Francisco Bay. Authorities were certain that it was impossible to survive an attempt to swim to the mainland.
During its years as a military prison the inmates at Alcatraz included Confederate sympathisers and citizens accused of treason during the American Civil War (1861-65) and rebellious American-Indians. During the Spanish-American War in 1898, the inmate population at Alcatraz rose. In the early 20th century inmate labour was used for the construction of a new the 600-cell structure, which still stands today, along with a hospital, mess hall and other prison buildings, and when the complex was finished in 1912 it was said to be the world’s largest reinforced concrete building.
In 1933 the army relinquished Alcatraz to the US Justice Department at their request since they required a federal prison to house a criminal population that was too difficult to be handled by other US penitentiaries.
After some alterations to make the existing complex more secure, the maximum-security facility officially opened on July 1, 1934. Each prisoner had his own cell and there was around one guard for every three prisoners.
Alcatraz was viewed as the prison system’s prison, a place where the most disruptive inmates could be sent to live under sparse conditions with few privileges in order to learn how to follow rules, and if they acquired the requisite discipline they could be transferred to other federal prisons. One of the most notorious prisons in history, the maximum-security facility on Alcatraz Island in the chilly waters of California’s San Francisco Bay housed some of America’s most dangerous felons in its years of operation from 1934 to 1963. Some of the most notorious gangsters who spent time there were Al ‘Scarface’ Capone and murderer Robert ‘Birdman of Alcatraz’ Stroud.
Prohibition era gangster Al ‘Scarface’ Capone spent four-and-a-half years there in the 1930s. He was sent to Alcatraz because his incarceration in Atlanta, Georgia, had allowed him the opportunity to remain in contact with the outside world and continue to run his criminal operation in Chicago. He was also known to corrupt prison officers but all that came to an end when he was sent to Alcatraz. He reportedly told the warden, “It looks like Alcatraz has got me licked.”
Despite several attempts, there was no inmate who was ever successful in escaping ‘The Rock’, as the prison was nicknamed. After Alcatraz was shut down due to the high operating costs, the island came to be occupied for almost two years, starting in 1969 by a group of Native American activists. Today, the historic Alcatraz Island has become one of the most popular tourist destinations and is on the must see list of anyone visiting San Francisco.
The stories of the dozens of doomed prisoners’ failed attempts to escape have become legendary and the 1979 film Escape from Alcatraz starring Clint Eastwood further popularised the stories about escaping prisoners. Today, Alcatraz has become the site for an annual sporting event where hundreds of athletes in the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon make an attempt to prove, though trained and fitted with proper gear that it is possible to swim from Alcatraz and survive.