In the center of San Francisco bay, framed in by some of the most stunning and grand thoughts in the country lies Alcatraz Island. A federal retributive is not usually included on the list of one's vacation projects, however the history and beauty of this island sanction an exception. From 1934 to 1963 a number of the most feared criminals in the American penal organisation called the stone home. Noted for the stark contrast between its spectacularly serene surroundings and the hardness of life and reference inside its surrounds, Alcatraz has found its way into American lore.

Earlier named Isla de los Alcatraces, or Island of the Pelicans it was later transformed and shortened to Alcatraz. Today looking out from the island visitors see a picturesque see from the Prosperous Gate Bridge, and downtown San Francisco, to the Bay Bridge, and Prize Island. One can for a moment suppose this position as the arranging of a luxurious holiday resort. Moving Around from the opinions outside the island to its internal contents however, speedily brings back the notion that this island was the scene of a less decent history.

Most renowned for its role as a prison, Alcatraz was initially a military base. When gold was discovered in California in 1848 San Francisco's population jumped from 300 to 30,000 in a subject of years. With this new inflow of population and riches there was a call for for the United States government to protect the area from other nations. In 1850 when California became a state, a triangle of munitions was designed to protect San Francisco Bay. Upon its completion in 1853 Fortress Alcatraz took on the lead role as the most important coastal denial on the western coast. The landscape of the island was united into the design, and high walls were built on the rocky isle, leaving the dock as the only approach to the fort.

Alcatraz was never called upon to support the bay, however a number of small incidents during the Civil War taken the island into the spot fine. As its use as a defending fortress lessoned, the island began to take on a new role, that of military prison. Eleven enlisted men were imprisoned in the guardhouse basement in 1859, and slowly deserters, thieves, and other military criminals were sent there from the San Franciscan forts. Finally in 1861 Alcatraz was named the official prison for the Department of the Pacific. The island served this role until 1933 when the cost of importing caters led the Army to leave, sending prisoners to Kansas and New Jersey.

At this stop crime in America had become an raising problem, fed mostly by the disturbs associated with inhibition. A new prison was searched that could take the worst of the country's criminals, and retire them from the public. While land in Alaska was in the beginning thought, the Army's new departure from Alcatraz cemented the island as the choice for America's new super-prison. The facility was to take in the most tough of inmates from other prisons around the nation.

In 1934, Al Capone, perhaps the penitentiary's most notorious prisoner, gone far as one of the first official changes. His arrival established tremendous involvement, and sparkled more headlines then the opening of the prison itself. Previously while jailed in Atlanta, Capone had been able to attain a lifestyle within the jail that was silent of for other prisoners. A carpeted cell and a radio were among the niceties he was able to procure through bribes and other method actings. He was even able to extend to manage his organization through relatives who established themselves in a nearby hotel. For this reason he was put on a secure prison railroad car without notice, and shipped to Alcaztraz in the hopes that the lack of outside contact would be the government's answer to the Capone trouble. On the rock Capone was never able to manipulate the warden or guards, and was held to menial duties along with the rest of the prison population. Staying only 4 years due to health complications Capone given for FCI Terminal Island in 1939.

Visitors can wonder at the wildlife, gardens, and tremendous positions from the high cliffs before entering the cell house where they can be locked within one of the solitary labor cells. There in the cold set up black room they can receive for just a brief moment what life must have been like at the prison in paradise.