The Alcatraz lighthouse was the first on the Pacific Coast and has been in operation since 1854. The only service interruption happened in 1970, when fire destroyed the lighthouse keepers' quarters and disrupted power to the light.
After the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, 176 prisoners from San Francisco jails were temporarily housed on Alcatraz.
The exact location of Al Capone's cell is unknown. Part of his four and a half years on Alcatraz were spent in a hospital isolation cell.