Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary stands on Alcatraz Island, 1.25 miles (2 km) off San Francisco. The concrete main cellhouse was built from 1910 to 1912 for the Army. The Department of Justice acquired it in October 1933 and modernized it, and it opened as a federal penitentiary on August 11, 1934.
The cellhouse is 500 feet (150 m) long. Its cells measure 9 by 5 feet (2.7 by 1.5 m), and the capacity was 336. Tool-proof steel cell fronts and metal detectors were added. D-Block held the most punished prisoners, including in "The Hole."
The prison closed on March 21, 1963. Native American activists occupied the island from 1969 to 1971, and fires in 1970 destroyed the Warden's House and the Social Hall. The National Park Service now runs it as a museum, reached by boat.
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