Sutro Bath Ruins in SAN FRANCISCO!

1 month ago
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In the Golden Gate Recreation Area north of Ocean Beach, San Francisco, you can find the ruins of the world's largest indoor swimming pool, Sutro Baths. They were built by entrepreneur and San Francisco mayor Adolph Sutro as an addition to his Cliff House, located on a cliff overlooking Ocean Beach. The structure was located in the beach cove below Cliff House. The massive building with glass roofs housed a freshwater pool and six seawater pools maintained at different temperatures, measuring 150 meters long and 77 meters wide, with a capacity of 1.8 million gallons of water. During high tide, water flowed directly into the pools from the ocean. During low tide, a powerful turbine pump filled the tanks in five hours. The baths were designed for 20,000 bathers. The complex included a museum with a collection of exotic exhibits collected by Sutro during his travels. The Sutro Baths were hugely popular, but never profitable, and over the years, their maintenance became increasingly expensive. Over time, the popularity of the baths also declined, especially after the Great Depression. In an attempt to make the facility profitable, the baths were converted into a skating rink, but their popularity never recovered, and the income was not enough to maintain the huge building. As a result, the baths were sold to a developer, who began demolishing the tanks to build multi-story apartments. In 1966, a strange fire destroyed part of the building, and the city decided not to continue construction of the high-rise. All that remains of this place today are ruins.

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