14 Facts About Alcatraz

Alcatraz Island is a small island in San Francisco Bay, 1.

In 1972, Alcatraz was transferred to the Department of Interior to become part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

Hornblower Cruises, operating under the name Alcatraz Cruises, is the official ferry provider to and from the island.

Alcatraz Island is the site of the abandoned federal prison, the oldest operating lighthouse on the West Coast of the United States, early military fortifications, and natural features such as rock pools and a seabird colony .

In 1850, President Millard Fillmore ordered that Alcatraz Island be set aside specifically as a United States military reservation, for military purposes based upon the U S acquisition of California from Mexico following the Mexican–American War.

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Alcatraz, built as a "heavily fortified military site on the West Coast", was to form a "triangle of defense" with Fort Point and Lime Point, but the contemplated work on Lime Point was never built.

In 1867, a brick jailhouse was built, and in 1868, Alcatraz was officially designated as a long-term detention facility for military prisoners.

Alcatraz was designed to hold prisoners who continuously caused trouble at other federal prisons.

Alcatraz established a new policy of self-determination, in part as a result of the publicity and awareness created by the occupation.

Part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area since 1972, the entire Alcatraz Island was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

Alcatraz has been portrayed often as a safe haven or base of operations in many post-apocalyptic movies, such as The Book of Eli.

Alcatraz was featured in the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops II in a downloadable zombie survival map called "Mob of the Dead" in which players could explore the Main Cellhouse, the Boat Dock, and a fictional area called the Catacombs which runs through the island.

Alcatraz even appears in The Alchemyst and The Sorceress by author Michael Scott and is depicted as a prison for the immortal Perenelle Flamel.

Alcatraz is featured as a downloadable map in the video game The Escapists.