Welcome to The Rock: Alcatraz Then and Now

This introduction answers the basic questions about Alcatraz Island: what it looks like now, how it became a park, where its name came from and why the government wanted it in the first place.

Is it the same as in prison days?

Mostly. Apart from structures that burned or were demolished before it became a National Park site, the island looks much as it did when the penitentiary was operating. The National Park Service has made some changes for access and safety, including an elevator in the cellhouse. It has let certain areas return to a more natural state for resource management, rebuilt or reinforced much of the construction and restored the gardens.

The biggest difference is the crowd. On a busy summer day, more park visitors arrive by ferry than were held on the island as prisoners during all 29 years of the penitentiary.

Former inmates

Alcatraz is the only federal penitentiary open to recreational visits from people who once served time there. Released felons are normally barred from visiting friends left behind, and working prisons do not welcome sightseers. A return trip to Alcatraz needs only a ferry.

Why a national park?

The mission of the National Park Service is to preserve, protect and interpret natural, scenic and historic areas, and Alcatraz, part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area, is all three. Public interest is the other reason. When tours started in 1973, the Service expected a few months of access would be enough to satisfy curiosity and provide feedback on future plans. The tour quickly became one of the most popular attractions in Northern California, and the appeal reaches beyond the former prison, since the island has a history that predates the penitentiary opened in 1934.

When was it discovered?

Spaniards explored the 22.5-acre island in 1775. They had been charting the California coast for years, but summer fog hides the mouth of San Francisco Bay. From well offshore, Alcatraz and Angel Island also blend together and seem to fill the gap of the Golden Gate.

Juan Manuel de Ayala explored and charted the bay in 1775, but the first reasonably accurate chart appeared more than half a century later. Somewhere between the explorer and the mapmaker, and with so much time elapsed, it became unclear which island had been given the name “La Isla de Los Alcatraces”. Once the map was published, Alcatraces became the name of what is now Alcatraz.

California became an American possession in 1848 and a state in 1850. President Millard Fillmore set Alcatraz aside for public purposes, meaning government property for military use.

What does the name mean?

It derives from “Alcatraces”, a Spanish name that most people think referred to birds. Explanations vary. Some scholars trace the word to an Arabic term for an irrigation bucket, a comparison suggested by the pelican’s distinctive bill, and later applied to other birds. Others translate it as “Island of the Cormorants”, or link it to the gannet, a coastal bird that resembles a cormorant.

Why did the government want it?

The first reason was navigation. A lighthouse was authorised in 1850, and when it was first lit on 1 June 1854 it was the first lighthouse working on the entire Pacific coast. It was demolished in 1909 and replaced by a taller one, the structure standing today, because the original was too short to be seen above the cellhouse then under construction. Backed by two foghorns and now automated, it remains an important aid to navigation in the bay.

Continue with the Army years and the opening of the penitentiary.