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In the cold and fast moving waters of San Francisco bay in the USA, on a small island, lies one of the most famous prisons in the world. Here some of the most dangerous men in America were sent to the escape-proof (almost) island of Alcatraz.
Today the island is a national park, and thousands of tourists take the short boat journey from San Francisco harbour to explore the concrete and iron fortress where Al Capone served some of his sentence.
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This imposing building is the main cell block, where up to 300 dangerous men were held. All the windows are barred, and armed guards were everywhere. They patrolled the grounds, watched over the inmates and kept the island under day and night observation from guard towers.
Each prisoner had a small cell in which he was locked up for up to 23 hours every day. If they behaved they got to spend an hour in the yard, from where this picture was taken. |
| The only contact that the prisoners had with the outside world were the occasional visitors who came to the Island. Even then they were strictly controlled. The visitor sat at this little window, with the prisoner on the other side. They talked via a telephone and all the conversations were monitored by prison guards. |
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At the end of the cell block was the 'gun gallery' where armed guards could look down the block and see what was going on. The idea was that even if the prisoners escaped from their cells they would be easy targets for the guards behind the bars of the gun gallery.
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The block has three floors of cells, mostly small, cold and identical. |  |
| Across the bay from Alcatraz, San Francisco is a bustling busy city, and it even has it's own Pyramid. This really cool skyscraper dominates the skyline, and is visible from miles away.
When it was first built the locals didn't think much of it, many even considered it a bit of an eyesore. But over time it has grown on them and many consider it to be one of the city's main landmarks, along with Alcatraz and the Golden Gate bridge.
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