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Little Alcatraz

Alcatraz Island
Cormorants on Little Alcatraz
Cormorants on Little Alcatraz

Little Alcatraz is a small rock in San Francisco Bay roughly 81 yards (74 m) off the Model Industries Building off northwest coast of Alcatraz Island. Due to its proximity to the island it is known by this name, but it was formerly known as Paul Pry Rock due to the steamer Paul Pry striking it on December 22, 1862, with some 150 men on board. On January 14, 1868, the 700 ton British ship, Oliver Cutts, struck the rock and sank. Since it is submerged at high tides, Little Alcatraz is still routinely struck by small pleasure boats.The rock is often a resting ground for Brandt's cormorants. During the last escape attempt from Alcatraz on December 16, 1962, Darl Lee Parker was found on Little Alcatraz; he couldn't swim. Some members of the South End Rowing Club also refer to the pier west of Municipal Pier/Aquatic Park as "Little Alcatraz" because it was the pier that connected prisoners and goods from San Francisco to Alcatraz.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Little Alcatraz (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Little Alcatraz
Alcatraz Wharf, San Francisco

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 37.827777777778 ° E -122.42527777778 °
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Alcatraz Island (Alcatraz)

Alcatraz Wharf
94123 San Francisco
California, United States
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nps.gov

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Cormorants on Little Alcatraz
Cormorants on Little Alcatraz
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Model Industries Building
Model Industries Building

The Model Industries building or Industries Building is a three/four-story building on the northwest corner of Alcatraz Island off the coast of San Francisco, USA. This building was originally built by the U.S. military and was used as a laundry building until the New Industries Building was built as part of a redevelopment program on Alcatraz in 1939 when it was a federal penitentiary. As part of the Alcatraz jail, it held workshops for inmates to work in. On January 10, 1935, the building shifted to within 2.5 feet from the edge of the cliff following a landslide caused by a severe storm. The warden at the time, James A. Johnston, proposed to extend the seawall next to it and asked the Bureau for $6500 to fund it. He would later claim to dislike the building because it was irregularly shaped. A smaller, cheaper riprap was completed by the end of 1935.A guard tower and a catwalk from Hill Tower was added to the roof of the Industries Building in June 1936 and the building was made secure with bars from old cells to bar the windows and grill the roof ventilators and to prevent inmates from escaping from the roof. It ceased use as a laundry in 1939 when it was moved to the upper floor of the New Industries Building. Today the building is heavily rusted due decades of exposure to the salt air and wind and the Hill Tower no longer exists. The guard tower formerly located on top of the building now sits across from the Power plant where it is on display.

June 1962 Alcatraz escape attempt
June 1962 Alcatraz escape attempt

In June 1962, inmates Clarence Anglin, John Anglin, and Frank Morris escaped from Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, a maximum-security prison located on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. Late on the night of June 11 or early morning of June 12, the three men tucked papier-mâché heads resembling their own likenesses into their beds, broke out of the main prison building via ventilation ducts and an unused utility corridor, and departed the island aboard an improvised inflatable raft to an uncertain fate. A fourth conspirator, Allen West, failed in his escape attempt and remained on the island. Hundreds of leads were pursued by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and local law enforcement officials in the ensuing years, but no conclusive evidence has ever surfaced favoring the success or failure of the attempt. Numerous theories of widely varying plausibility have been proposed by authorities, reporters, family members, and amateur enthusiasts. In 1979 the FBI officially concluded, on the basis of circumstantial evidence and a preponderance of expert opinion, that the men drowned in the frigid waters of San Francisco Bay without reaching the mainland. The U.S. Marshals Service case file remains open and active, however, and Morris and the Anglin brothers remain on its wanted list.New circumstantial and material evidence has continued to surface, stoking new debates on whether the inmates managed to survive.