Alcatraz Island is a national recreation site of United States of America. It is located at the San Francisco Bay and was a federal prison in early years of its development. The island at that time was referred to as ‘The rock’.
The Alcatraz Island is now open to tourists and is under the management of National park service. The island is visited by tourists through ferry rides and helicopters. The site is home to the oldest American light house, an abandoned prison and military fortifications.
The island is around 22 acres in size and is 511m in height.
During the early years of 20th Century the Alcatraz prison was a high profile prison and was used to hold prisoners from different prisons because they caused a lot of trouble.
During its 29 years the Alcatraz prison has been known for holding most notorious prisons including Al Capone, Robert Franklin Stroud, George Machine Gun and others.
The prison at Alcatraz was closed in 1963 owing to the high cost of operations. The cost of holding prisoners is around $3 in other prisoners while in Alcatraz due to its isolation from the world costs around $10 per prisoner.
The Alcatraz island has been used in many games and movies including Call of Duty, Birdman of Alcatraz, X Men the Last stand and Escape from Alcatraz.
During the military fortification and later the days of Alcatraz prison gardens were planted at Alcatraz which later fell into neglect. Again they have been restored by paid up staffers and volunteers due to funding by Garden conservancy and Golden Gate national park conservancy.
