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hedgefield

Sutro Baths; aka the Rapture of San Francisco

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Last night I was listening to episode 112 of 99% Invisible, a (great) podcast mostly about architecture and historical events - it's like a short and sweet version of This American Life.

 

Anyway, the story this week was about the Sutro Baths, a collection of swiming pools and amusements at the San Fransico coast. When listening to it's rich and weird history I couldn't help shake the image of Bioshock's Rapture. If people had actually cared enough about it it might have eventually turned into that.

 

TLDR version: A crazy property developer called Adolf Sutro built a giant glass structure with tons of swimming pools, then built an entire public transport line for people to get to it. When they didn't care much, he also built a tropical (indoor) beach, an aviary, a museum of antiquities, a ferris wheel and a SKYTRAM connecting two nearby cliffs.

 

It was eventually abandoned and it burned down. Now it's part of an SF national park and people come to the ruins to marvel at them (including Hot Scoops). People often think it's something from Ancient times now, even though the ruins are only 45 years old. Sounds like it's cool to check out if you're in the area.

 

Then:

 

don.ross_.final1_.jpg Panorama-SB-for-web.jpg

Sutro%20Baths%20(in%20possession)_small.

OriginalSutroBaths1.jpg

 

Now:

 

SUTRO%20VIEW_14_2006_1.jpg

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That's now on my list of weird places I want to visit.  Thanks!

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Wow, I've never even heard of it, this is now really high up on my list of places to visit and I'll probably try and go this summer.

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Came in here to pimp 99% Invisible and saw that it was the reason for the thread's creation. NICE!! Love that podcast.

 

Wish I still lived in SF or had known about it at the time I did live there. Sounds like a cool place to check out.

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