Video: 'Alcatraz Island - 1934 | Movietone Moment | January 1 2021'

(Saturday, August 11, 1934, 9:40 a.m. PDT) — The first group of federal prisoners, classified as America’s most dangerous felons, arrived today at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary on Alcatraz Island, a 22-acre rocky outcrop 1.5 miles offshore in San Francisco Bay in California.

The first batch of 137 prisoners arrived at Alcatraz from the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas, having traveled by rail to Santa Venetia, California.

Before being escorted to Alcatraz, they were handcuffed in high-security coaches and guarded by some 60 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) special agents, U.S. Marshals, and railway security officials.

Video: 'Alcatraz Island Prison Opening in August of 1934'

Most of the prisoners were notorious bank robbers, counterfeiters, or murderers.

The United States Department of Justice acquired the United States Disciplinary Barracks, Pacific Branch, on Alcatraz on October 12, 1933.

The island became adapted and used as a prison of the Federal Bureau of Prisons after the buildings were modernized and security increased.

Given this high security and the island’s location in the cold waters and strong currents of San Francisco Bay, prison operators believed Alcatraz to be escape-proof and America’s most secure prison.