San Francisco Bay is the artificial and flat Treasure Island, site of the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition. From the Second World War until the 1990s, both islands served as military bases and are now being redeveloped. Isolated in the center of the Bay is Alcatraz, the site of the famous federal penitentiary. The federal prison on Alcatraz Island no longer functions, but the complex is a popular tourist site. Despite its name, Mare Island in the northern part of the bay is a peninsula rather than an island. San Francisco Bay is thought to represent a down-warping of the Earth's crust between
Legends of Alcatraz occurred in the area that Henri Young had murdered Rufus McCain, stabbing him in the neck. Despite former guards and park rangers revealing their paranormal experiences at Alcatraz, officials for Alcatraz have publicly dismissed the reports of ghosts at Alcatraz as nonsense and deny their existence; an official for Alcatraz said in 1994, "These ridiculous ghost stories will stop tourists from visiting. And how can these people say they heard canaries? We don't have any birds in here." Mary Forgione of the "Los Angeles Times" also stated that "The National Park Service, which operates the island as a tourist site,