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Beginning with small, salt-water baths and pools built in 1864 in Santa Cruz, CA, the West Coast has been dotted with large natatoria, such as San Francisco's Lurline Baths, opened in 1894. The Olympic Salt Water Company owned the baths and a pier at Ocean Beach; the pier sheltered the cast-iron intake pipe 600 feet offshore in the Pacific. Pumps were used to bring the water to a Laurel Heights Reservoir, where, like ancient Roman aqueducts, gravity could send it to distant users. In this case, it was sent to users of salt water on San Francisco's east side, including the Lurline Pool and the Olympic Club. Like Seattle's Natatorium that closed in the late 1930s, the Lurline Baths closed in 1936.

Inventor Thomas Edison (1847-1931) created a 20-second film moment at the pool in 1897.

PCAD id: 19214