Alcatraz, San Francisco, California

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One of San Francisco’s most popular attractions is also one of its most chilling – and perhaps the most notorious of all the country’s former prisons. The island fortress of Alcatraz was built in the 1850s by the US army and originally held political and military prisoners. The inmates were forced to build a new facility that eventually became a federal prison in 1933. And no detail was spared in the design when it came to intensifying the torment of those incarcerated in ‘The Rock’, as it became known.

America's abandoned prisons you can visit (msn.com)

Alcatraz, San Francisco, California One of San Francisco’s most popular attractions is also one of its most chilling – and perhaps the most notorious of all the country’s former prisons. The island fortress of Alcatraz was built in the 1850s by the US army and originally held political and military prisoners. The inmates were forced to build a new facility that eventually became a federal prison in 1933. And no detail was spared in the design when it came to intensifying the torment of those incarcerated in ‘The Rock’, as it became known.