Part one of term paper
The name is derived from the Spanish "Alcatraces." In 1775, the Spanish explorer Juan Manuel de Ayala was the first to sail into what is now known as San Francisco Bay - his expedition mapped the bay, and named one of the three islands Alcatraces; over time, the name was Anglicized to . While the exact meaning is still debated, is usually d ...

Part two of term paper
... top of the island in the early 1850's. The Army also made plans to install more than 100 cannon on the island, making the most heavily fortified military site on the West Coast. Together with Fort Point and Lime Point, formed a "triangle of defense" designed to protect the entrance to the bay. The island was also the site of the first operational lighthouse on the West Coast of the United States. By the late 1850's, the first military prisoners were being housed on the island. While the defensiv ...