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prisoners it was anything but negative. >> this room was converted into a solitary confinement section. there were nine solitary confinement cells in this little space. vertical. the men would have to stand up inside these cells. i was just enough room for their knees to hit the door. >> reporter: in 1933 the war department turned alcatraz over to the federal bureau of prisons. it would become the toughest prison in the federal system gaining instant notoriety when its new tenants included some of the most famous and powerful gangsters in the country. >> machine gun kelly just senten...

he first recorded nearly 50 years ago. i left my heart in san francisco. in 2000, bob mackenzie brought us this look back at tony bennet's life and long career. >> tony bennet has never lived in san francisco. but he is an adopted son as far as this audience is concerned. benefit concerts such as this one for the deyoung museum is now what he does most. >> ♪ >> reporter: how long have we been hearing that voice? a long time. >> ♪ >> reporter: it's been a long career, one that started with a supported family. >> the family would make a circle around us, while our relatives and my ...

since the mid-1800 understand it's gone from fortress to prison to a tourist attraction. it switched to civilian use. the first civilian main inmates arrived in the summer of 1984. the last inmates was on march 1963 the day that it ceased to be a federal prison. it had become too expensive to operate and the buildings were deteriorating. the last inmates were loaded on to buses that day taken to the pier and transferred to boats and shipped off to other federal prisons that were more modern and less costly to run. for years the rock sat empty, a desolate area. the indians occupied fo...