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The site of a fort since the 1850s, the main prison building was built in 1910–12 as a U.S. Army military prison . The United States Department of Justice acquired the United States Disciplinary Barracks, Pacific Branch, on Alcatraz on October 12, 1933.
Alcatraz Island, Rocky island in San Francisco Bay, California, U.S. It has an area of 22 acres (9 hectares) and is located 1.5 mi (2 km) offshore from the city of San Francisco. The site of the first lighthouse (1854) on the California coast, it became an army garrison (1859) and a military prison (1868).
HISTORY. Alcatraz’s Captivating Hold on History. Fifty years after Native American activists occupied the island, take a look back at the old prison in San Francisco Bay. Ben Crair....
