Alcatraz

December 4, 2004

Alcatraz

The name Alcatraz in derived form the Spanish "Alcatraces." In 175, the Spanish explorer Juan Manuel de Ayala was the first to sail into what is now known as San Francisco Bay: this expedition mapped the bay, and named one of the three islands Alcatraces; over time, the name was Anglicized to Alcatraz. While the exact meaning is still debated, Alcatraz is usually defined as meaning "pelican" or "strange bird."

In 1850, a presidential order set aside the island for possible use as a United States military reservation. The California Gold Rush, the resulting boom in the growth of San Francisco, and the need to protect San Francisco Bay led the United States Army to build a Citadel, or a fortress, at the top of the island on the early 1850's. The Army also made plans to install more than 100 cannons on the island, making Alcatraz the most heavily fortified military site on the West Coast.

English: Bodies of Hubbard (left), Coy (center), a...

Alcatraz Island

English: I, Ben McKune took this picture of the fo...

Together with Fort Point and Lime Point, Alcatraz formed a "triangle of defense" designed to protect the entrance to the bay. The island was also the site of the first operational lighthouse on the West Coast of the United States.

By the late 1850's, the first military prisoners were being housed on the island. While the defensive necessity of Alcatraz diminished over time, (the island never fired its guns in battle), its role as a prison would continue for more than 100 years. In 1909, the Army tore down the Citadel, leaving its basement level to serve as the foundation for a new military prison. From 1909 through 1911, the military prisoners on Alcatraz built the new prison, which was designated the Pacific Branch, U.S. Disciplinary Barrack for the U. S. Army. It was this prison building that later...