“opportunity isn’t always obvious.” sometimes you have to cheat.
David Chang on SF
San Francisco. “Fuckin’ every restaurant in San Francisco is just serving figs on a plate. Do something with your food,” said Chang. [source]
Go get ‘em!
Fleishhacker Pool
The other day I was catching up on my Internet reading and ran across an interesting t-shirt. The series, entitled Gangs of San Francisco, had lots of interesting references to former areas of San Francisco that only remain today due to historical ties. One of the more interesting ones I found was Fleishhacker Diving Club, which is quite a name in itself. I knew I had to do some more reading after reading the short historical blurb.
Fleishhacker Pool, the largest swimming pool in the United States, opened in 1925 in San Francisco’s parkside neighborhood of the sunset district. It had a capacity of 6 million gallons and could accommodate 10,000 swimmers. It was so large that lifeguards required row boats to patrol it. It closed in 1971, and now lays buried below the San Francisco Zoo. [source]
And sure enough, I learned more about the sheer scale of the pool.
It rightfully claimed its status as the world’s largest heated salt-water pool. The pool measured 1000 feet in length by 160 feet across at the middle section and 100 feet across at each end. The depth graduated from 3 feet at the west end to 15 feet under the diving platform. It held 6,500,000 gallons of filtered seawater pumped in from the Pacific Ocean and could heat 2800 gallons a minute from 60 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit. The pool maintained the constant 72 degrees required for A.A.U. (Amateur Athletic Union) Swim Meets. Unfortunately, when the ambient air temperature is in the 60s or lower with a damp breeze coming off Ocean Beach, that’s a cold 72 degrees. [source]
Unfortunately, the San Francisco Zoo currently sits on top of the former pool site. If you search hard enough, you can still run across the remains of the pool house. All we are left with are some photographs which convey the vastness of the pool (below). Too bad we don’t have a pool park anymore. It seems like it would be far more pleasant than Ocean Beach, which is always freezing.
More reading here.
An aerial view of the pool from 1925 with Ocean Beach bordering it. [source]
Diving towers. [source]
Swimmers at Fleischhacker Pool. [source]
i just rocked the scrabble board with my f, m and q. I WIN!
