Sutro Baths, Swimming pool ruins in Lands End, San Francisco, United States

Sutro Baths is a swimming pool ruin in Lands End, a coastal section northwest of San Francisco in the United States. The concrete foundations of six saltwater pools and one freshwater pool lie along the rocky shoreline north of Ocean Beach.

Entrepreneur Adolph Sutro built this swimming complex in 1894, creating the largest indoor pool facility in the world at that time. A fire in 1966 destroyed the main buildings, and the ruins remain as testimony to this ambitious vision.

The complex set a civil rights precedent in 1897 when John Harris successfully sued against racial discrimination at public facilities. This legal victory opened access to recreational spaces across the region for all communities.

The ruins lie at the foot of the cliffs below the Cliff House, reached by a short descent of stairs and a tunnel passage; the tunnel has a deep crevice in the middle. The concrete pool basins and walkways are exposed at low tide, while high tide sends water directly into the pools from the ocean.

The site began in 1884 as a tide-fed aquarium about 30 by 34 metres, built on Adolph Sutro's orders at the northern end of Point Lobos. Sutro told the San Francisco Chronicle in early 1886 that he planned to enlarge it into a swimming bath, and the pools followed. The aquarium's supply pipe let sea creatures wash in with the flood tide and appear at low water.