Alcatraz Island the hands of Confederate sympathizers. Alcatraz, built as a "heavily fortified military site on the West Coast", formed a "triangle of defense" along with Fort Point and Lime Point, and ensured security to the bay. The island was also the site of the first operational lighthouse on the West Coast of the United States. Alcatraz never fired its guns offensively, though during the war it was used to imprison Confederate sympathizers and privateers on the west coast. Because of its isolation from the outside by the cold, strong, hazardous currents of the waters of San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz was used
June 1962 Alcatraz escape attempt to death by guards because he wouldn't help investigators locate his brothers. A 2014 study of the ocean currents by scientists at Delft University and the research institute Deltares indicates that if the prisoners left Alcatraz at 11:30 pm on June 11, they could have made it to Horseshoe Bay just north of the Golden Gate Bridge, and that any debris that were released into the bay would have floated into the direction of Angel Island, consistent with where the paddle and belongings of the prisoners' was actually found. A 2015 History Channel documentary presented further circumstantial evidence gathered over