ALCATRAZ
Alcatraz (pelican), the fortress-like island in the bay, just inside the channel, performs the triple duty of a fortified military post, prison, and light-house. Although but 1650 feet in length, it rises to a height of 130 feet above the water, and in the shadowy light just after sunset, its high, rocky walls, topped by the buildings of the fortifications and prison, make a silhouette against the sky strikingly like a great dreadnaught, standing guard at the harbor’s entrance.
The story of its naming can not be run to earth, but it probably originated in some circumstance connected with the great sea-birds whose ungainly forms may still be seen heavily flapping over the bay, or resting on the island.