On a Thursday afternoon in 1946, thousands of people gathered on the northern San Francisco waterfront, staring intently at Alcatraz Island. Explosions resounded across the water, mingled with the crackle of rifle fire.
The crowds were watching what would become known as the Battle of Alcatraz. The bloody confrontation raged on through the next day and evening.
When it finally ended, two guards and three inmates lay dead. It was the most momentous event in the prison's history.
"The Rock" had been a federal penitentiary since 1934, intended to house the worst of the worst and designed to be escape-proof. The ultimate barrier, of course, was the frigid bay. But from the locations of the guard towers to the design of the cell blocks, the guard-inmate ratio, and the practice of counting inmates every half hour, everything about the prison made breaking out all but unthinkable.
