Alcatraz Wharf Alcatraz in the 1850s to permit the landing of men and building materials to construct a fort, completed in 1859. In 1867, the "General McPherson" was built to serve the island and other military institutions in the San Francisco Bay Area, as Alcatraz became a long-term military prison from 1868. The steamer towed officers, prisoners and food and water supplies to island between 1867 and 1886, landing at the dock twice daily before being replaced. During the time as a federal penitentiary, a prisoner once attempted to escape on a boat from the boat by dressing as an officer. The
Legends of Alcatraz Karpis is said to haunt the prison bakery and kitchen. One visitor and his wife have claimed to have heard canaries singing in what was the cell of Robert Stroud, the "Birdman of Alcatraz", and to have seen him on the bed reading a book, yet Stroud was never permitted to keep birds in his cell as he'd done at former prisons. Numerous investigators and psychics such as Annette Martin and Jeanne Borgen and paranormal teams have sought to "contact spirits" at Alcatraz. KGO Radio Morning News anchor Ted Wygant, a skeptic of the paranormal, visited Alcatraz in 1982 with