IT’S 100 YEARS ago, you’re in Fairfax and you just read about the fabulous Sutro Baths. “The Largest Indoor Swimming Palace in the
World,” says the advertisement,
“with six saltwater pools of varying
temperatures, plus one freshwater
pool and numerous waterslides and
springy diving boards.” So without
the Golden Gate Bridge, how did
folks from far-flung Fairfax get to
Ocean Beach? “You’d catch a 12: 24
p.m. Northwestern Pacific Railroad
electric interurban train from down-
town Fairfax,” says rail historian
Fred Codoni about his hometown.
“It cost maybe 20 cents and arrived
in Sausalito at 12: 55 p.m.” Then
came a ferry to San Francisco, leaving at 1 p.m. and reaching the Ferry
Building by 1: 35 p.m. “From there
you took a Market Street Railway
trolley,” Codoni says, “and the seven-mile ride cost ten cents and took
about one hour.” The Sutro Baths
cost San Francisco Mayor Adolph
Sutro $1 million to build. It opened
in 1896 and remained an Ocean
Beach landmark until 1966, when it
was consumed in a spectacular fire
during its demolition. m
Soothing
Sutro
In 1916, the trip to the San
Francisco baths from Marin
took about two hours and
cost less than a dollar.
BY JIM WOOD
Looking Back
CIRCA 1900
The Sutro
Baths cost San
Francisco
Mayor Adolph
Sutro $1 million
to build.
