49 Fun Facts About Alcatraz

Alcatraz Island sits in the bay of which US city?

It lies just offshore near the Golden Gate, and cold water plus strong currents made swimming away nearly impossible.

What is the prison's famous nickname?

The name comes from Spanish alcatraz, meaning gannet, though it is popularly taken to mean pelican.

What does the Spanish word 'alcatraz' mean in the island's name?

Explorer Juan Manuel de Ayala first applied the name in 1775 to nearby Yerba Buena Island; it migrated to the Rock later.

In which year did Alcatraz open as a federal penitentiary?

The Army had used the island for over 80 years; the Justice Department took the disciplinary barracks in October 1933.

In which year did the federal prison close?

Structural decay, sky-high running costs and the embarrassing 1962 escape all contributed.

How far is Alcatraz from the shore of the city it faces?

The bay's currents and cold water, not the distance, were what made escape so deadly.

Which Chicago gangster was among Alcatraz's most famous inmates and played banjo in its prison band?

The band was called the Rock Islanders and played Sunday concerts; Capone's syphilis was steadily eroding his mind by then.

Robert Stroud, the 'Birdman of Alcatraz', actually kept his birds at which other prison?

Alcatraz banned his canaries; he spent 17 years there, mostly in segregation and the hospital wing.

How much notice was the Birdman reportedly given before being moved from Kansas to Alcatraz in 1942?

His birds and lab equipment were shipped to his brother because Alcatraz would not let him keep them.

Which gangster served more time at Alcatraz than any other inmate?

Karpis was there from 1936 to 1962, and was the only FBI 'Public Enemy #1' ever taken alive.

What nickname did fellow Alcatraz inmates give gangster George Barnes for his tall fish stories?

He had earned $200,000 kidnapping oil tycoon Charles Urschel in 1933 and spent his last 21 years in prison.

How many escape attempts were made during Alcatraz's 29 years as a federal prison?

36 men tried; 23 were caught, six were shot, two drowned and five are still 'missing and presumed drowned'.

The three men in the famous June 1962 Alcatraz escape were Frank Morris and two brothers from which family?

John and Clarence Anglin, bank robbers from Georgia, remain on the US Marshals' wanted list.

What did the 1962 escapees leave in their beds to fool the guards?

The hair was stolen from the barbershop; the escape wasn't noticed until a dummy head fell on the floor at 7 a.m.

What did the 1962 escapees build their raft from?

They assembled it on top of the cell block behind sheets, then left through a roof vent.

What did the escapees use to power a homemade drill for widening their cell vents?

Accordions played during music hour covered the noise; a spoon soldered with silver from a dime served as a chisel.

Which fourth conspirator was left behind in 1962 because his fake wall had set in cement?

He chipped through too late, then told the FBI the plan had been to paddle to Angel Island.

What did the FBI officially conclude in 1979 about the fate of the 1962 escapees?

The Marshals Service still lists them as wanted until September 2026, and theories about their survival keep surfacing.

Who played escape ringleader Frank Morris in the 1979 film Escape from Alcatraz?

It was the fifth and last film Eastwood made with director Don Siegel, after Dirty Harry.

Which 1996 Michael Bay film has Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage breaking INTO Alcatraz?

Connery plays a former SAS captain; the film earned over $335 million and an Oscar nomination for sound.

The 1946 'Battle of Alcatraz' ended when which force stormed the cellhouse?

Six inmates seized the weapons room; three died, and two more were later executed at San Quentin.

Alcatraz's corridors were nicknamed after famous streets. What was the main one called?

Others were Michigan Avenue, Park Avenue and, in D-Block, Sunset Strip.

What were the six isolation cells at the end of D-Block known as?

Inmates were stripped and locked in the dark, usually for 3 to 19 days.

Roughly how big was a standard Alcatraz cell?

Cells were deliberately built so none touched an outside wall.

How many prisoners in total passed through Alcatraz as a federal penitentiary?

Some sources say 1,557; the population on the first anniversary in 1935 was just 242.

How many prisoners arrived in the first group from Kansas on 11 August 1934?

They travelled by rail under the guard of some 60 FBI agents, marshals and railway police.

Which surprising fact was true of the food at Alcatraz?

Some inmates even volunteered to transfer to the Rock, despite its 'Hellcatraz' reputation.

Roughly how many books did the average Alcatraz prisoner read per year?

Newspapers were banned and crime pages torn out of magazines, but every inmate got a library card on arrival.

Why did huge quantities of drinking water have to be barged to Alcatraz every week?

Nearly a million gallons a week were barged in, one reason the prison cost about $10 per inmate per day versus $3 in Atlanta.

Who was the first warden of Alcatraz?

He and his deputy were called 'iron men'; four wardens lived in the 15-room mansion beside the lighthouse.

Alcatraz's lighthouse was the first built in which part of the United States?

The 1854 original was replaced by a taller concrete tower in 1909 after earthquake damage.

Before it held federal convicts, what did the Army use the island for during the Civil War?

It mounted 85 cannons by 1861 and held Confederate sympathisers in the citadel.

Which group occupied Alcatraz for 19 months from November 1969?

Indians of All Tribes cited the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, claiming surplus federal land should return to Native peoples.

Which president rescinded the Indian termination policy during the Alcatraz occupation?

He replaced it with a policy of self-determination, partly in response to the protest.

Which agency has run Alcatraz since it joined the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in 1972?

It became part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in 1972 and a National Historic Landmark in 1986.

Roughly how many people visit Alcatraz each year?

Ferries leave from Pier 33, between the Ferry Building and Fisherman's Wharf.

How large is Alcatraz Island?

It rises 135 feet at its highest point and hosts a seabird colony of gulls, cormorants and egrets.

Which US president in May 2025 proposed reopening Alcatraz as a prison?

Historians called the idea symbolic and warned that renovation would be enormously costly.

Which US politician bought Alcatraz for the government for $5,000 in 1846, then was never reimbursed?

Washington later invalidated the sale, and his heirs were still suing into the 1890s.

The Alcatraz cellhouse, finished in 1912, was reputedly the world's longest building made of what?

It was 500 feet long and cost $250,000 to build as an Army prison.

What have volunteers restored on Alcatraz that guards' and soldiers' families originally planted?

A Welsh rose called Bardou Job, thought extinct, was rediscovered growing among the overgrowth.

Which two prisoners vanished into the bay in 1937, the first Alcatraz escapees never accounted for?

Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe were presumed drowned; Aaron Burgett drowned in a 1958 attempt.

What did Alcatraz install in 1934 that was cutting-edge security for its time?

The 'electro-magnetic gun-detecting system' overheated so often the maker's contract was cancelled in 1937.

Which sport did inmates play in the recreation yard, with four teams named after minor-league clubs?

The Bees, Oaks, Oilers and Seals played there in 1938; a wall behind first base had to be padded.

Alcatraz cost nearly $10 per prisoner per day to run in 1963; roughly what did Atlanta's penitentiary cost?

Salt-water erosion of the buildings and the barging of nearly a million gallons of fresh water a week added to the case for closure.

Which Chinese dissident artist staged the 2014 Alcatraz exhibition @Large, with Lego portraits of prisoners?

Its creation was documented in the 2019 film Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly.

In 1972 Alcatraz became part of which newly created federal park unit?

The NPS bought the island together with Fort Mason from the Army; President Nixon allocated $120 million for the new area.

The tide pools on Alcatraz, among the only ones in San Francisco Bay, were created by what?

The island's western cliffs host pigeon guillemots, cormorants and Heermann's gulls, and harbor seals sometimes haul out below.

Which skateboarding video game features Alcatraz as a playable level?

The island was also a racetrack in the 1997 arcade game San Francisco Rush the Rock: Alcatraz Edition.