Alcatraz

  

 Alcatraz is an island located in the middle of San Francisco Bay, California in the United States. This island was home for a few decades a fortress, then a high-security federal prison. its name was derived in 1775 from the old Spanish meaning Alcatraces pelican and does not refer to the modern translation; gannet, bird that lives just in the north Atlantic.

 Alcatraz Lighthouse is the oldest lighthouse in activity of the West Coast of the United States. He also was the first lighthouse on the Pacific coast and works since 1854. It has continued to illuminate only once, in 1970, when flame destroyed the caretaker's house and cut the power supply.

 For centuries, Alcatraz stayed uninhabited. Just some Indian tribes were to go there. The island was stamped on maps from 1776, year when the Spaniards colonized the Bay of San Francisco. The island was still undeveloped when the Americans took the cove to Mexicans in 1846. The gold rush the administration chose to fabricate a beacon and a fortress for the gigantic riches created by the misuse of gold mines in the zone had prompted a sharp increment in sea activity, and also the number of inhabitants in San Francisco, which then passed 300 to 20,000 individuals. 

 In 1850, a Bay guard arrangement accommodated the development of a fortification block on every side of the Golden Gate. Alcatraz, which confronts the water crafts entering the harbor, was facilitated a third littler bastion, whose development started in 1853. 

 The 400 officers Alcatraz then have 111 firearms protecting the island in all bearings, and lines of specialties burrowed weapons on the rough mountainside. Different weapons of 25 tons were introduced in 1864. They could shoot around 5 km balls 40 cm in distance across and weighing 200 kg. In any case, the deadly implement advancement was extremely fast amid the Civil War and these offices rapidly got to be outdated. All the more intense weapons were put close to the present area of the Golden Gate, Alcatraz and Fort no more assumed a critical part in the guard of the narrows. In 1861, the stronghold was changed over into a jail in 1901, the last gun was dismantled.

Alcatraz Today

 Some buildings were razed in 1972 before the creation of the national domain of the Golden Gate and the opening of the island to the public in 1973. from that point, Alcatraz is a piece of the National Park Service in charge of keeping the buildings and protecting birds living there (gulls, hawks, geese, herons, hummingbirds, cormorants, ...). Part of the island is also closed to the public during the mating season.