"The Prison of Famous Men " a Alcatraz Island Travel Page by perseushermes

The word itself strikes a chilling feeling into the spine.

Alcatraz was originally built as a Lighthouse from 1854 but turned into a Prison in 1861

But the historucally imprtant date was sometime in 1934 when the island of Alcatraz was turned into a federal penitentiary with the aim to be a high-profile, maximum security facility.

Of all the people who did time in this place, only a few notorious criminals served time here.

History has shown that there were only 14 attempted escapes. But the increasing maintenance cost, Alcatraz "the Rock" island, was closed in 1963.