Galei Gil, Swimming center in Ramat Gan, Israel
Galei Gil is a swimming center in Ramat Gan, Israel, with several pools suited to different levels of ability. The complex includes areas for children, beginners, and practiced swimmers, along with changing rooms and rest areas on site.
Galei Gil was a swimming pool in northern Ramat Gan, near the Israel Diamond Exchange and the Sarona bridge, open from 1946 to 1994. It was inaugurated in August 1946, and from its opening the Edah HaCharedit's modesty patrol in Jerusalem campaigned against it. In June 1947 two British policemen were kidnapped by the Irgun while swimming there. The pool hosted the swimming competitions of the 5th Maccabiah in 1957 and the 6th in 1961, and in 1994 it closed; the Leonardo City Tower hotel was later built on the site.
The name Galei Gil was shared with the adjacent football ground of Hakoah Maccabi Ramat Gan, which opened in 1949 and was demolished in 1974. The pool hosted the swimming competitions of the 5th Maccabiah in 1957 and the 6th in 1961, and of the 8th Maccabiah in 1969, where Mark Spitz won six gold medals.
The pool stood near the Israel Diamond Exchange by the Sarona bridge, beside the Hakoah Maccabi Ramat Gan football ground. It closed in 1994, and the Leonardo City Tower hotel was built on the site by Yitzhak Tshuva, Uri Dori and the Ofer brothers. In 2012 a shaft 110 m long, 25 m wide and about 30 m deep was dug in the adjacent parking lot.
In 2012 a 110-metre-long, 25-metre-wide shaft about 30 metres deep was dug in the parking lot on the site by Zalman Brashi and Brothers, lowering tunnel-boring machines for the Red Line of the Tel Aviv light rail. Tunnelling began in February 2017 and ended in June 2018.
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