Fifty years ago, the notorious Alcatraz prison shut its gate behind guard Jim Albright as he escorted the last inmate off the island on March 21, 1963.
This 80,000-acre urban park is one of the nation's largest and the most beautiful. Spanning 70 miles, it's rich in history, plant life and wildlife. It's also a major feat of rehabilitation and restoration.
Alcatraz Island, home to its namesake famous prison off the San Francisco Bay, welcomed back its last inmates for the 50th anniversary of the closure of one of the most notorious penitentiaries in the world.
The National Park Service marked the 50th anniversary of the closure of the Alcatraz federal penitentiary on Thursday with an exhibit of recently discovered photographs of the prison's final day on March 21, 1963.
Tours of the Golden Gate Bridge inaugurated during its 75th anniversary in 2012 are back for a second season starting April 1, 2013.
Alcatraz Island, which hosted its last inmate 50 years ago today, was also home to prison workers and their families who returned to the island this morning to mark the anniversary and recount their lives there.
Thursday is a red-letter day in the history of Alcatraz Island - the 50th anniversary of the day the prison closed. It was the end of one era and the beginning of another.
Over a million visitors tour Alcatraz every year, but a recent discovery has revealed another attraction that lives within the shadows of this historical prison: glowing millipedes of Alcatraz.
From NightLife at the Academy to free walking tours to Japantown and beyond, 49 spots in San Francisco that are new, newly transformed or underappreciated. Time to explore!
Alcatraz has more stories than its dark past as America's most feared prison. One part of its history is the Indian occupation from the winter of 1969 to the spring of 1971, when a band of American Indians seized the island after the prison closed. They hoped to turn it into an Indian cultural center, or perhaps a small university devoted to native studies.
Off the coast of San Francisco, millions of people pay to go to prison. They come to the island of Alcatraz to tour the dark cells of probably the most infamous American prison.
