November.8th

     When you stand on the Golden Gate Bridge and look east across San Francisco Bay, you can see an island. It is very small, but everybody knows its name, Alcatraz. Every year, more than 1.4 million visitors visit this place.

     Alcatraz island first became an imprtant prison in 1907. At this time, it was only a prison for soldiers. Then,in the 1930s, the U.S. government needed a place for the most dangerous people in the country-people from wild cities like Cicago or New York. They thought nobody would be able to escape from the island of Alcatraz.