San Francisco is synonymous with its bath houses and yet very few people have heard of the Sutro
Baths the place where this traditional started once a thriving Gateway for the working class
public the Sutro Baths were a monument of their time boasting various amenities such
as heated swimming pools restaurants and even a private Museum a complete picture of luxury
and opulence patrons flocked from near and far to visit the largest indoor swimming
establishment in the world seeking an escape from their daily lives and yet from today's
perspective you might say it was doomed from the start this once incredible complex is now
little more than a crumbling Eerie ruin but how did we reach such extremes today we discover
the story of the Sutro Baths I'm your host Ryan sokash and you're watching it's history [Music]
to understand San Francisco's most famous bathhouse we have to set the stage by traveling
back in time to the 1850s in California the Gold Rush marked this time along the largest
mass migration in the United States history with countless Prospectors setting out in the hopes
of making a fortune in mining in the year 1850 a german-born man named Adolf Heinrich Joseph
Sutro arrived in California Sutro was a very well educated man in mining engineering and business
and he was soon to make his fortune in the 1870s by designing and constructing a tunnel to drain
and ventilate mine shafts in The Comstock load in Northern Nevada this tunnel aptly called the
Sutro tunnel was 1640 feet deep 10 by 12 feet wide and 3 600 feet long it enabled miners to
reach even deeper than before without it much of the work would would have otherwise remained
underwater but while Sutro had been trying to raise funds for the tunnel for quite some time
his plans didn't truly take off until the Yellow Jacket mine disaster at Gold Hill in 1869 in which
a methane fire claimed the lives of 35 miners it was around this time that the project gained real
traction this was because it garnered the support of fellow miners who saw the drainage tunnel as a
crucial second exit in the event of another fire Sutro sold stock certificates for the Sutro tunnel
company to raise funds for the project which was completed by 1878. it ran from Dayton to Virginia
City and had many connections to local mines the tunnel was a massive success so much so that it
ended up being a blueprint for many other mining tunnels it also significantly improved Miner's
working conditions and made their jobs safer from certain hazards the tunnel was so high in demand
that miners would pay ten thousand dollars to rent it out for a single day as you can guess
Sutro made a considerable Fortune from the tunnel system though his plans reached Beyond
Sutro returned to San Francisco where he would later become a one-time mayor and
started purchasing land on the outskirts of the city in the 1880s some said he owned as much as
1 12 of the entire city at one point in the end Sutro acquired 22 acres of land along the Pacific
coast he then used his money from Comstock to build Sutro Heights there he built a breathtaking
Garden that was open to all not just the upper class a common theme in sutro's work that would
repeat itself once more with the openings of his baths another common theme in sutro's work was the
incorporation of art from around the world with which he decorated The Gardens of Sutro Heights
visitors who paid a small entrance fee could enter the park take carriage rides or visit the
conservatory and viewing Tower as we know from a previous video in 1883 Sutro purchased the Cliff
House and rebuilt it after a devastating fire and still his most ambitious project was Yet to
Come Those Who Saw the Sutro Baths in their Prime wouldn't have believed what it started as a modest
artificial tide pool and a natural Cove next to the Cliff House it might also surprise you that
Sutro didn't initially set out to build the baths as bats instead he intended for the space to house
a massive outdoor aquarium with a catch Basin used to filter and fish crabs and other marine
life while filtering out sand and seaweed as you can no doubt tell Sutro aimed incredibly high
with this project the idea later evolved into a Promenade people could walk through and then again
into a hotel eventually however Sutro settled on his biggest undertaking yet the Sutro Baths
significantly inspired by the new trend of public bath houses and intent to make them accessible to
more than just the upper class Sutro set out to build his extravagant Grecian inspired bath
house he drew inspiration from his travels in Europe in particular classical baths in 1888
Sutro offered a 500 prize for the design of the bathhouse eventually awarding it to the Architects
CJ Khali and Emily s Lemmy who had designed the second Cliff House for Sutro Sutro used
his tunnel knowledge to engineer the bats which covered three acres of land he built a series of
underground tunnels to channel the salt water of the San Francisco Bay into the building's swimming
pools after they were filtered and heated through a boiler and furnace room six of these pools were
saltwater and one was fresh water during high tide these pools could pump in almost 2 million gallons
of water in just one hour and during low tide a sea level turbine pumped water into the tanks
at a rate of 6 000 gallons a minute during construction a nearby cave was fitted with
tracks for carts which hauled in rock to build the foundation of the baths it also provided continued
access to nearby quarries which was crucial as the Breakwater protecting the baths from
the tide needed to be reinforced regularly there were many tunnels in the system to keep the bats
running among others there was also one used for drainage another as the access point to the catch
Basin and a third that housed the previously mentioned turbine water pump the building was
massive topped by enormous glass arches and a glazed roof that let the sunlight in and kept
the facility warm even in the winter meaning that it was accessible year round but the Wonder of
the Sutro Baths didn't end there the pools were fitted with diving boards water slides trapezes
trampolines and swings just about anything a swimmer could ever want a large Promenade
that overlooked the pool was home to a museum with various objects and art pieces from all around the
world these attractions included exotic plants artwork geologic specimens Taxidermy and even
Egyptian mummies guests also had access to 500 dressing rooms a 2 700 seat Amphitheater and Club
rooms that could hold up to 1 100 people Sutro also opened several restaurants and even built
a tram to bring in visitors from afar in hopes of making patrons trips an all-day Affair the train
fee was just five cents and the cost of using the pool was 25 cents at the time the Sutro Baths were
the largest pool establishment in the entire world the baths could accommodate up to 10 000 people at
a time which was for the best as this facility was a hit from the start it's reported that thousands
of people flocked to the baths on the opening day alone Sutra was understandably incredibly
proud of his achievements and was quoted in an article of the chronicle in 1893 stating quote
there were great baths in ancient Rome but I think I may honestly say that our baths here need fear
no comparison Sutro also hoped to prove what he calls quote health-giving Amusement that would
equip people for struggles of life but despite this roaring success trouble loomed on the horizon
after sutro's death on August the 8th 1898 his family struggled with the burden of keeping the
establishment up and running many events were held to keep its patrons there such as beauty
pageants championships magicians trapezax and even a high diving canine one of the crowning
events was one a Hawaiian Olympic gold medalist set world records at the Pacific coast swimming
championship in 1913 and 1914. in the subsequent years World War one would come and go as well
as the Great Depression meaning that few could afford the cost of recreation in turn the cost
of keeping the Sutro Baths open only continued to rise sutro's hairs tried to get the city to
purchase the baths but they saw no luck eventually sutro's grandson Adolf G Sutro took over under
his guidance the baths were renovated with a more tropical theme a few of the pools were
removed to add basketball dancing ice skating ping pong activities and indoor beaches but by
that point it was already too late the Sutro Baths extravagant as they were were practically bleeding
money in 1952 the baths were nearly shut down and demolished for scrap only saved by George
Whitney the owner of Playland and Cliff House who purchased them with several nearby acres of land
he removed the rest of the swimming pools in order to transform the bath house into a full-scale ice
skating rink after Whitney's death however his remaining family began to sell off parts of the
land around the bathhouse real estate developers who hope to build condos in place of baths
wanted to demolish the structure entirely but before that could happen another tragedy struck
in keeping with the nearby Cliff House's prior accidents the Sutro Baths too were destroyed by
a fire on June the 26th 1966. after which the developers took the insurance payout and left
the project altogether but perhaps most shocking is that the cause of the Sutro Baths was ruled
as arson the perpetrator was never discovered but one of the leading theories is that it may
have been purposefully burnt down so that its owners could collect the insurance money and
recoup profits from a falling business plans to demolish the bath house soon returned this time
in the hopes of building a shopping center and housing in their place but a public cry
for the runes to be preserved prevented this as a result the baths were saved from their
untimely or others might say timely demise but what remains let's have a look though the bath
houses do sit and ruin you can still visit their remains you may even be able to spot the Dig outs
for the pools or the ladder supports wrapped in a shell around crumbling walls of their
supports the remains of the bath house are part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and
were purchased by the National Park Service in 1980 the Sutro Egyptian collection of artifacts
from the Promenade museum has been relocated to the San Francisco State University collection
looking back on the Sutro Baths it's almost Eerie to think about how something so incredibly popular
still end up forgotten and abandoned Halls that were once filled with thousands of people are
now demolished and empty along the Coastline Pools full of swimmers are eroded perhaps its
charm was best described in a 2016 interview with San Francisco resident Josh Elmore who
stated it's one of the places one of many places that when you first come to it you
feel like you've stumbled upon some hidden treasure that nobody else has been to or
seen before it really puts you in the throes of nature but I'm curious when you envisioned
San Francisco's bath houses is this what you had in mind let me know in the comments below
and please support our project by clicking join or subscribe and don't forget to send
me your episode ideas on Instagram until next time this is Ryan silkash signing off