WEBVTT - Who Built the First Swimming Pool? 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.600 You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope 0:00:06.640 --> 0:00:07.640 and iHeartRadio. 0:00:12.400 --> 0:00:13.119 Guess what Mango? 0:00:13.560 --> 0:00:14.280 What's that? Will? 0:00:14.680 --> 0:00:17.760 So I was looking through the National Register of Historic Places, 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:19.560 and you know, I was doing this on a Saturday, 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:22.320 because that's how I spend most of my saturdays these days. 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:26.680 And I noticed that there's actually only one swimming pool 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:29.160 on the list. One swimming pool in all the National 0:00:29.200 --> 0:00:30.800 Register of Historic Places. 0:00:30.960 --> 0:00:33.080 Well, I love that, that's how you spend your Saturdays. 0:00:33.120 --> 0:00:35.760 But there's only one swimming pool. 0:00:35.479 --> 0:00:39.000 On a very special swimming pool. This is the Venetian Pool, 0:00:39.040 --> 0:00:42.000 and it's located in Coral Gables, Florida, and it was 0:00:42.080 --> 0:00:45.120 built on this abandoned rock quarry. Now the pool is 0:00:45.159 --> 0:00:48.239 the largest freshwater pool in the entire country. And when 0:00:48.240 --> 0:00:50.159 it was first built, it was made to look like 0:00:50.200 --> 0:00:53.840 a Venetian grotto, so this really lush pool. It was 0:00:53.960 --> 0:00:56.840 equipped with places to dock your gondola. Of course, they 0:00:56.880 --> 0:00:59.600 actually used to have gondolas that would ride across it. 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:02.120 I'm not kidding. You should look for the photos of this. 0:01:02.520 --> 0:01:05.320 But the really impressive feature is that to keep the 0:01:05.360 --> 0:01:09.720 water fresh, it was drained every single day and then 0:01:09.840 --> 0:01:12.800 filled with fresh water from the artesian springs that it 0:01:12.880 --> 0:01:16.039 connects to, and I'm not making that up either. That 0:01:16.319 --> 0:01:19.679 is incredible, but also it kind of seems like a 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:22.720 lot of water. Yeah, so you can imagine some conservationists 0:01:22.760 --> 0:01:24.959 took issue with this, and when they pointed that out, 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:27.760 the system was changed a little bit. So today the 0:01:27.800 --> 0:01:31.080 water pumps out to an aquifer where the water is 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:33.840 cleaned and then pumped back in, so the water is 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:37.319 still changed very regularly. But what's incredible is that because 0:01:37.319 --> 0:01:40.039 the quarry gets emptied out, they can also use it 0:01:40.080 --> 0:01:43.600 for other events, like apparently the quarry has stunning acoustics, 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:47.120 so symphonies will perform concerts from the bottom for its locals. 0:01:47.160 --> 0:01:49.040 I think I'd probably be nervous that it was suddenly 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:52.280 going to start filling up again. But anyway, I put 0:01:52.320 --> 0:01:54.400 it on my list of places to visit the next 0:01:54.400 --> 0:01:56.680 time I'm in Florida because it's actually open to the 0:01:56.680 --> 0:01:59.840 public and it looks beautiful. Plus the idea of fresh 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:02.560 swimming seems like a lot of fun, and especially in 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:05.720 such a huge pool. But reading about the Venetian made 0:02:05.760 --> 0:02:08.520 me wonder where swimming pools got their start and how 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:12.040 they spread across America. And also who the Zanius swim 0:02:12.080 --> 0:02:13.720 team in New York history is. You know that's an 0:02:13.720 --> 0:02:14.920 obvious next one. 0:02:15.680 --> 0:02:18.040 I don't even know what that sentence means, but I 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:20.720 love it. And usually i'd say, let's dive in, but 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:23.960 I don't think we're gonna be that elegant, so let's 0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:26.120 get into it with a great big belly flop. 0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:50.480 Hey, their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:52.799 Will Pearson, and as always I'm here with my good 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:55.760 friend mangesh Hot Ticketer and somewhere behind the big booth, 0:02:55.840 --> 0:02:58.040 sitting in an inner tube in a kiddie pool with 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:00.359 floaties on each of his arms. I saw these things 0:03:00.400 --> 0:03:03.160 sitting around the office all week. I had a feeling 0:03:03.200 --> 0:03:05.000 this is where he was going with it. That's our 0:03:05.000 --> 0:03:06.280 good friend Dylan Fagan. 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:09.360 You know what's amazing about it is like that's not 0:03:09.480 --> 0:03:11.639 even half the work he put into this. Like I 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:13.600 don't know if you notice, but he has posters up 0:03:13.600 --> 0:03:16.600 everywhere of all these great movies from like Ferris Bueller, 0:03:16.880 --> 0:03:21.280 The Sand Loot, The Graduate Rushmore, National Lampoon's Vacation. And 0:03:21.320 --> 0:03:22.800 I didn't realize it, but. 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:27.320 You know, they all have a famous swimming pool. Scenes. Yeah, exactly, 0:03:28.040 --> 0:03:29.200 that's true. Good catch. 0:03:29.240 --> 0:03:30.960 There is a genius. 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:32.160 He really is a genius. 0:03:32.240 --> 0:03:36.000 So will I know you are a good swimmer. I'm 0:03:36.000 --> 0:03:38.880 a terrible swimmer. I grew up near a y, so 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:41.800 like I went to lessons there, I was a polywog, 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:44.560 and then a guppy, and then a minnow and a fish, 0:03:44.840 --> 0:03:47.520 and I was just like crushing these levels one after another. 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:50.000 And then I just grew older and older and I 0:03:50.160 --> 0:03:56.480 never got promoted to flying fish and heartbreaking and eventually 0:03:56.600 --> 0:03:59.880 I quit. But in spite of all that resentment, I 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:01.280 I still love swimming pool. 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:03.920 I'm the same way I love a swimming pool, but 0:04:03.960 --> 0:04:06.160 I sort of just like being in it, you know, 0:04:06.360 --> 0:04:09.160 like not working really hard. And I'm not swimmings. I'm 0:04:09.160 --> 0:04:12.640 not a great swimmer. But so anyway, why don't you 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:15.760 kick this off and tell us about the first swimming pool, 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:17.080 which I know you look the into. 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:21.040 Absolutely so. People have been swimming in lakes and rivers 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:24.559 and other bodies of water for thousands and thousands of years. 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:27.479 But to get to what is possibly the earliest evidence 0:04:27.560 --> 0:04:30.120 of a pool, we have to go to circa twenty 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:32.839 five hundred BCE. And this takes us to the Indus 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:37.440 Valley in modern day Pakistan. In the nineteen twenties, archaeologists 0:04:37.480 --> 0:04:41.760 were excavating Mohenjo Daro, which is one of two main 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:45.560 Indus civilization settlements, and they came across this structure and 0:04:45.680 --> 0:04:49.360 it is really impressive. It looks like a pool about 0:04:49.440 --> 0:04:52.600 eight feet deep and is built of brick, and it 0:04:52.600 --> 0:04:55.679 has drainage, a bunch of benches, and even this terraced 0:04:55.720 --> 0:04:59.160 deck area. Honestly, it's not that different from the baths today. 0:04:59.480 --> 0:05:02.520 But you said wasn't for swimming, that's right. So the 0:05:02.600 --> 0:05:05.680 exact use is unknown, but historians think it was likely 0:05:05.680 --> 0:05:09.039 a bath used for religious ceremonies. So that's kind of 0:05:09.040 --> 0:05:11.640 the first known example of a pool. But we're going 0:05:11.720 --> 0:05:14.400 to zoom ahead about two thousand years to ancient Rome, 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:18.200 where public baths were really popular. Before this time there 0:05:18.240 --> 0:05:21.000 had been bathing in pools and swimming in open water. 0:05:21.320 --> 0:05:24.800 But we can credit the Romans with building pools explicitly 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:26.080 for military training. 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:28.760 Ah, that's super interesting. But somehow I hadn't put it 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:32.120 together that they'd be teaching soldiers to blow bubbles underwater 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:35.159 and showing them like the elementary backstroke and all that 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:35.880 sort of stuff. 0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:40.040 Yeah, and the idea of Roman soldiers doing aqua aerobics 0:05:40.080 --> 0:05:42.960 together and full regalia is pretty fun to think about it. 0:05:43.040 --> 0:05:46.479 But also you can credit the wealthy Roman diplomat patriot 0:05:46.480 --> 0:05:50.919 of the arts and leisure enthusiast Gaeus Macenus for likely 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:53.640 having the first heated swimming pool, which he built in 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:54.919 the first century BCE. 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:57.920 Wow, that's amazing that heated swimming pools go back that far. 0:05:58.120 --> 0:06:01.440 Yeah, the first sense of Britannica about geis is pretty amazing. 0:06:01.560 --> 0:06:05.920 It reads quote gayas Messinas was a Roman diplomat, counselor 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:09.200 to the Roman Emperor Augustus, and wealthy patron of such 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:12.599 poets as Virgil and Horrus. He was criticized for his 0:06:12.720 --> 0:06:14.880 luxurious way of life. 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:17.920 I love that. It's right there in the opener. All right, 0:06:17.960 --> 0:06:20.680 so I'm digging this quick tour through the early swimming 0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:23.360 pools that actually is super interesting. But what's next. 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:26.880 So as the centuries go on, swimming in bats especially 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:29.720 bats continue to be really popular, right, So you think 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:33.520 about the onsen in Japan, the Hammams in Turkey, the 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:36.480 Banyas in Russia. It just goes on around the world, 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:40.240 and in Europe, the popularity of swimming really dips during 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:43.120 the Middle Ages, possibly because people were worried that it 0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:47.120 spread infections. But by eighteen thirty seven, the very beginning 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:51.279 of Victorian England, there were six indoor pools with diving 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:54.000 boards in London. Isn't it amazing? Yeah? And it's the 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:57.080 Victorian era that really ends up ushering in the idea 0:06:57.120 --> 0:06:59.960 of swimming as both a sport and a leisure activity. 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:03.320 You start to see swimming clubs and organized races and 0:07:03.680 --> 0:07:06.839 this starts spreading across Europe and eventually into places like 0:07:06.880 --> 0:07:08.640 Australia and America. 0:07:08.720 --> 0:07:11.000 All Right, so when do pools, you know, finally take 0:07:11.040 --> 0:07:11.760 over America. 0:07:12.480 --> 0:07:16.000 So there's this great book called Contested Water, a Social 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:18.280 History of Swimming in America, and a lot of this 0:07:18.360 --> 0:07:21.760 research comes from there. But according to Jeff Wiltsey, the 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:24.760 first public pool in the US was built in Boston, 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:27.680 and this is around eighteen sixty eight, so just a 0:07:27.720 --> 0:07:30.200 few years after the Civil War had ended. For context, 0:07:30.280 --> 0:07:33.640 then it was an indoor pool called a Cabot Street Bath, 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:36.960 and unlike those fancy pools with diving boards in London, 0:07:37.160 --> 0:07:40.040 this one was as the name suggests really supposed to 0:07:40.040 --> 0:07:42.440 be a bath. A lot of working class folks didn't 0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:44.760 have a way to bathe themselves, so the pool was 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:46.360 really a substitute for that. You know. 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:48.480 One of the things that I don't like thinking about 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:51.239 is what the water must have looked like in pools 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:54.120 like this. I mean for real, Yeah, I know, it. 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:56.760 Was so gross, and it was pre chlorine, so you 0:07:56.840 --> 0:07:59.800 have to imagine it's pretty disgusting. But you know, the 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:02.520 attempt in the US to use chlorine to clean a 0:08:02.560 --> 0:08:05.840 pool wasn't until nineteen ten, so that was really a 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:09.360 ways away. But Wilsee said he came across reports that 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:11.680 knowed the water in these early public baths needed to 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:13.120 be changed about once a week. 0:08:14.040 --> 0:08:16.240 It also feels like way too long. I don't know, 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:18.600 maybe I'm just being a clean freak here, but I 0:08:18.640 --> 0:08:20.960 feel like it would just abstain from public. 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:24.680 Baths, yeah, I mean, actually, our researcher MARSSA. Brown threw 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:27.800 in this TLC joke here that we should just stick 0:08:27.840 --> 0:08:29.760 to the rivers and the lace that you used to. 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:34.080 That's actually the appropriate use. That's well done. 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:36.920 And the truth is that even though these public baths 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:39.880 were popping up in the US, people were swimming in 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:43.120 fresh water or freshish water. So like if you think 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:45.760 about New York City, for example, there had been free 0:08:45.760 --> 0:08:48.920 public floating bats in the Hudson and the East River, 0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:51.960 and this was starting in eighteen seventy. They were almost 0:08:51.960 --> 0:08:54.360 one hundred feet long and the deepest they got was 0:08:54.360 --> 0:08:55.520 about four point five. 0:08:55.320 --> 0:08:57.920 Feet, So people were actually bathing in the East River. 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:00.680 Yeah, for a while in the night eighteen twenties, the 0:09:00.679 --> 0:09:04.480 city finally realized the river water maybe wasn't the cleanest, 0:09:04.600 --> 0:09:06.679 and the floating baths eventually went away. 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:09.240 I mean, it's such a cool idea, and I know 0:09:09.280 --> 0:09:11.520 they have these floating pools and lakes and oceans in 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:13.679 other parts of the world, but I guess if you're 0:09:13.679 --> 0:09:16.679 swimming in the East River, it was probably for the best. 0:09:17.160 --> 0:09:19.520 Yeah, I know. It reminds me of that Seinfeld where 0:09:19.960 --> 0:09:23.040 Kramer starts swimming in the East River because he says 0:09:23.040 --> 0:09:26.720 the pool is too constrictive for his knees. It was 0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:31.600 so ridiculous. But back to pools. So the first public 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:34.640 outdoor pool in the US that Jeff Wiltsey could find 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:38.080 was in Philadelphia, and it opens in the summer of 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:40.760 eighteen eighty three, and again it was meant to be 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:42.520 used for body cleaning purposes. 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:44.800 And do you know why they kept building these pools 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:45.439 for bathing in. 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:49.079 Yeah, I mean part of the reason was really kind 0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:52.640 of classiest, Like you have these working class boys, they 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:55.800 jump into open water naked, like they're not genteel. So 0:09:56.160 --> 0:09:59.400 they're often splashing about in lakes and rivers and water 0:09:59.600 --> 0:10:02.280 near buildings, and they're having a good time and they're 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:05.640 often being rampunctious. So part of the idea was, let's 0:10:05.720 --> 0:10:07.720 just get them swimming and playing and bathing in an 0:10:07.800 --> 0:10:10.160 enclosed area so the public doesn't have to see all 0:10:10.320 --> 0:10:11.840 all these people bathing in cities. 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:14.680 So it wasn't so much this public service or good, 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:17.840 but more something to keep the supposed lower classes from 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:19.880 being an eyesore I guess exactly. 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:23.080 And showers were only added later in sort of like 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:26.120 the mid to late eighteen nineties. So this was around 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:28.640 the time when the idea that water could actually transmit 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:32.880 invisible diseases through microbes became more accepted. But this is 0:10:32.920 --> 0:10:35.800 when you start to see the real change. And after this, 0:10:35.920 --> 0:10:38.520 the pool started to become less of a bathhouse and 0:10:38.559 --> 0:10:42.080 more of a recreation area. So by eighteen ninety eight, 0:10:42.200 --> 0:10:45.840 Philly had nine public pools, and on average, each of 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:49.360 these accommodated about fifteen hundred swimmers a day during the summer. 0:10:49.440 --> 0:10:51.480 That is a lot of people, you know. One of 0:10:51.520 --> 0:10:54.240 the craziest facts I read was that in nineteen thirteen 0:10:54.400 --> 0:10:57.440 the Fairgrounds Park in Saint Louis opened and it was 0:10:57.679 --> 0:11:01.319 huge and circular. We're talking four hundred feet in diameter, 0:11:01.760 --> 0:11:05.240 and apparently one Sunday, pretty soon after it opened, fifty 0:11:05.400 --> 0:11:09.240 thousand people came to visit, and twenty five thousand to swim, 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:14.280 another twenty five thousand to watch. That's another pool I'm 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:14.920 not getting in. 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:19.280 Twenty five thousand people came just to spectate. That's insane, yes, 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:22.680 but obviously it was a trend, right. So like during 0:11:22.720 --> 0:11:25.960 the nineteen twenties through the forties, cities around the entire 0:11:26.000 --> 0:11:29.440 country started building megapools, and some of them were bigger 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:32.040 than football fields and had sandy beaches, some of them 0:11:32.080 --> 0:11:35.160 had grassy lawns, and some of them came with concrete 0:11:35.200 --> 0:11:39.599 decks to sunbathe on. And get this. So, the Fleischhacker 0:11:39.720 --> 0:11:43.480 Pool in San Francisco, which opened in nineteen twenty five, 0:11:44.040 --> 0:11:47.680 was one thousand feet long, one hundred and fifty feet wide. 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:51.760 Ten thousand people could swim at once, and lifeguards used 0:11:51.800 --> 0:11:54.480 wooden rowboats to get across. Isn't that amazing? 0:11:54.800 --> 0:11:55.319 Wow? 0:11:55.720 --> 0:11:58.439 Also, it was filled with seawater and it was heated 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:00.760 to between sixty five and seven five degrees. 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:04.120 Okay, now that sounds delightful. Actually, we should make a visit. 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:07.480 I mean, unfortunately it's been closed since the nineteen seventies 0:12:07.640 --> 0:12:09.840 and now it is a parking lot for the San 0:12:09.880 --> 0:12:10.640 Francisco Zoo. 0:12:10.880 --> 0:12:13.080 But okay, well, we should make a visit. I like 0:12:13.120 --> 0:12:13.760 parking lots. 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:17.920 In its original form, it's still considered the largest ever 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:19.000 landlocked pool. 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:22.760 And so what was driving all this swimming pool madness? 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:24.679 Like why were so many of these getting built at 0:12:24.679 --> 0:12:25.040 the time? 0:12:25.440 --> 0:12:27.520 The New Deal is part of the reason. Like that 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:31.200 became pretty instrumental in the public pool explosion. And more 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:33.400 than seven hundred and fifty pools were built by the 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:37.040 federal government between nineteen thirty three and nineteen thirty eight, 0:12:37.640 --> 0:12:41.040 and they were really popular. In nineteen thirty three, the 0:12:41.120 --> 0:12:45.880 National Recreation Association surveyed what kind of leisure activities Americans did, 0:12:46.240 --> 0:12:49.600 and apparently as many people swam frequently as went to 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:50.679 the movies frequently. 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:54.160 I mean, it is nice that so many of the 0:12:54.200 --> 0:12:56.480 pools at that time were open to the public, because 0:12:56.520 --> 0:12:58.520 pools were just way too expensive for most people to 0:12:58.559 --> 0:12:59.280 build on their own. 0:12:59.600 --> 0:13:04.560 Yes, so just like Gaius Marcillus, you know, private pools 0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:07.920 were definitely a sign of decadence. And William Randolph Hurst 0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:10.640 actually had two pools at his castle. He had the 0:13:10.720 --> 0:13:14.360 outdoor Neptune pool, which was complete with sculptures and a colonnade, 0:13:14.679 --> 0:13:17.520 and then there's the indoor Roman pool, which was styled 0:13:17.520 --> 0:13:21.040 after the ancient Roman bats, and it's decorated floor to 0:13:21.120 --> 0:13:24.600 ceiling with blue and orange mosaic tiles. They're both really 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:25.360 really beautiful. 0:13:26.240 --> 0:13:29.400 Wow, just looking at this, Gayus would have been super proud. 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:31.559 And you know, from my research, it seems like it 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:33.920 wasn't until around the nineteen fifties that you start to 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:36.479 see a bunch of these private backyard pools. 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:39.599 And I mean, I'm guessing that's just because America is 0:13:39.679 --> 0:13:40.720 wealthier post war. 0:13:41.280 --> 0:13:44.120 That's partially it, but it's also because of new materials, 0:13:44.200 --> 0:13:48.040 Like there's something called gunnite, which is basically sprayed concrete, 0:13:48.240 --> 0:13:51.160 and so gunnite had been around since the early nineteen hundreds, 0:13:51.440 --> 0:13:54.079 and it was used to do things like line sewers 0:13:54.200 --> 0:13:57.400 and repair buildings and bridges. But in the nineteen forties 0:13:57.440 --> 0:14:01.320 and fifties, with increasing middle class salary and people living 0:14:01.320 --> 0:14:04.360 in suburban homes they have bigger yards, dun Night was 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:07.480 a quicker and more affordable option for a personal pool. 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:10.120 And there's a lot more to talk about modern swimming 0:14:10.160 --> 0:14:12.320 pool culture, but before we get into that, let's take 0:14:12.320 --> 0:14:30.680 a quick break. Welcome back to part time Genius, where 0:14:30.680 --> 0:14:34.000 we're talking swimming pools. So mego. I know, New York 0:14:34.040 --> 0:14:36.680 City has a great pool system. I believe it has 0:14:36.720 --> 0:14:39.560 over fifty public pools that get opened in the warmer months. 0:14:39.560 --> 0:14:41.680 But do you ever take your kids to the pools there? 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:44.480 Yeah? Definitely. I mean I'm not a swimmer, but like 0:14:44.600 --> 0:14:47.320 my kids definitely go with friends, they go to birthday parties. 0:14:47.520 --> 0:14:50.080 It's kind of the same way they take advantage of 0:14:50.120 --> 0:14:53.560 the city's roller rinks or ice skating rinks. Also two 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:54.680 other things I'm not good at. 0:14:55.560 --> 0:14:58.640 Gosh man manga, you're too hard on yourself. Well, part 0:14:58.640 --> 0:15:00.000 of the reason I was asking is have you ever 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:01.400 heard of the aquasanes? 0:15:02.080 --> 0:15:04.320 I have not what are the Aquisanes. 0:15:04.680 --> 0:15:07.360 So the Aquasanes were a troop of boys that would 0:15:07.360 --> 0:15:10.240 go around pools and they would basically perform these like 0:15:10.320 --> 0:15:12.800 comedy and trick diving acts for people. 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:16.320 You just sent over this picture. It's ridiculous. 0:15:16.720 --> 0:15:17.680 It is pretty amazing. 0:15:17.800 --> 0:15:19.600 Is it kind of reminds me of the people on 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:22.280 the subway who yell showtime and then start breaking rising 0:15:22.280 --> 0:15:22.880 on the poles. 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:27.680 Yeah, that's pretty that's that's pretty much it. So picture 0:15:27.680 --> 0:15:30.560 a group of very energetic teen boys, all dressed in 0:15:30.560 --> 0:15:33.440 what seemed to be swimming outfits inspired by these old 0:15:33.560 --> 0:15:37.320 timey jail uniforms, and it's pretty crazy. There's this one 0:15:37.400 --> 0:15:40.080 video of them where they're like ten boys on a 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:44.120 huge diving platform, leaping and flipping all at once. And 0:15:44.160 --> 0:15:47.200 another trick is where the Aquaisanes lined up one behind 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:50.080 the other on the board just before jumping over and 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:52.280 on top of each other as they dive in and 0:15:52.360 --> 0:15:55.400 crash into the water. So their overall vibe is sort 0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:57.960 of very loosely organized chaos. 0:15:58.200 --> 0:16:01.240 I like that, Well, were they're perform planned? Like did 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:04.720 they you know, did they have like this choreographed routine 0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:07.240 or did they just show up and cause havoc. 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:10.200 I mean, it seems like it was semi legit, I guess. 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:12.800 And you know, their home base was Astoria. They had 0:16:12.800 --> 0:16:15.880 a coach actually, and in the nineteen forties and fifties 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:18.880 the aqua Zanes were big. So for about a decade 0:16:19.240 --> 0:16:22.120 there was a yearly summer performance called the Aqua Show 0:16:22.440 --> 0:16:24.480 that was held in Queens. It seems like it was 0:16:24.520 --> 0:16:28.560 basically this vaudevillian, you know, type of variety show, and 0:16:28.600 --> 0:16:31.920 the acts included water ballet and a log rolling monkey 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:34.000 named Herman. Of course his name was Herman. He was 0:16:34.200 --> 0:16:37.320 a log rolling monkey. I mean, so even ice skating, 0:16:37.440 --> 0:16:39.800 so don't don't ask me how. And of course the 0:16:39.840 --> 0:16:40.640 aqua Zanes. 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:43.880 I love this whole culture of like aqua shows. I 0:16:43.920 --> 0:16:45.040 had never heard of any of this. 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:47.720 Yeah, yeah, all right, So let's move out of New 0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:50.920 York City pools and travel to France, which also has 0:16:50.960 --> 0:16:54.440 some pretty interesting pool history. And unfortunately, the first part 0:16:54.520 --> 0:16:57.240 here starts with a tragedy. So we go back to 0:16:57.280 --> 0:16:59.800 the summer of nineteen sixty nine and there were two 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:04.320 separate events in France where in total, thirty three kids drowned. 0:17:04.359 --> 0:17:05.800 So obviously super sad here. 0:17:06.119 --> 0:17:08.360 Oh, that's terrible. So what happened all right? 0:17:08.400 --> 0:17:10.960 Well, one of the incidents happened on the River Lore 0:17:11.160 --> 0:17:13.639 where a lot of kids were playing and some just 0:17:13.720 --> 0:17:16.600 got swept under. And one happened when a boat with 0:17:16.640 --> 0:17:20.080 twenty four kids on it capsized and fourteen of them drown, 0:17:20.200 --> 0:17:24.520 and it really accentuated this disparity in swimming ability across 0:17:24.560 --> 0:17:27.879 the classes. But those tragedies pushed the government to place 0:17:27.920 --> 0:17:31.440 a new emphasis on teaching kids to swim and making 0:17:31.480 --> 0:17:34.320 sure that French kids had access to more swimming pools. 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:37.159 So the government launched this project. It was a project 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:40.159 called one Thousand Swimming Pools, where the goal was, as 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:42.919 you can imagine, actually to build a thousand swimming pools 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:44.080 that would be open year round. 0:17:44.400 --> 0:17:46.720 That's just good branding. I love a project title that 0:17:46.760 --> 0:17:47.679 doesn't leave you guessing. 0:17:48.720 --> 0:17:51.520 It's pretty clear what's going on there. So first they 0:17:51.600 --> 0:17:54.520 collected design ideas and ended up choosing one by the 0:17:54.640 --> 0:17:58.240 architect Bernard Shouler, and his original design was for a 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:01.399 pool with his dome segment cover that would open up 0:18:01.400 --> 0:18:04.119 as the sun moved across the sky, which just sounds 0:18:04.119 --> 0:18:08.760 super cool. It was nicknamed Piecene Turnosil or sunflower pool 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:12.000 because of the way sunflowers follow the sun. But when 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:14.960 they actually looked into building it, they realized it was 0:18:15.000 --> 0:18:17.760 too expensive. Now, the thing was, they still liked the 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:19.919 idea of the design, so they just went with a 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:23.439 simpler variation on this. The roof was this domed and 0:18:23.680 --> 0:18:27.000 segmented structure, but only a third of it would open up, 0:18:27.080 --> 0:18:30.600 and only the south facing side of it, so it's. 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:32.639 Kind of like a lazy sunflower in this case. 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:37.160 It's exactly right. But people loved them. So the first 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:39.520 went up in nineteen seventy two in a town outside 0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:42.240 of Paris, and eventually one hundred and eighty two more 0:18:42.280 --> 0:18:45.159 of these structures were built, but not a thousand. Now 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:48.879 in total, the government actually built around six hundred swimming pools, 0:18:48.920 --> 0:18:51.520 which is still a lot of pools, and not all 0:18:51.560 --> 0:18:55.240 of them were of the sunflower variety. Other variations included 0:18:55.280 --> 0:19:00.159 the quote full sunlight, the iris, and the duckling. That 0:19:00.160 --> 0:19:02.760 people really remembered was the sunflower. 0:19:03.200 --> 0:19:05.679 I mean, I know you send it across these photos 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:07.680 and I've got to put them up for listeners to see. 0:19:07.720 --> 0:19:11.919 But they're really cool. It's like very Jetson's esque. But 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:13.960 can you still swim in them. 0:19:14.160 --> 0:19:16.800 Well, sadly most of them are now abandoned. They actually 0:19:16.880 --> 0:19:19.760 ended up being pretty expensive to maintain, and that plastic 0:19:19.840 --> 0:19:23.240 exterior didn't do well in the elements. But there's still 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:26.199 some around and some that even still function as pools. 0:19:26.240 --> 0:19:30.000 There's actually an Instagram account called le fair tonasoul and 0:19:30.040 --> 0:19:32.280 that documents many of them, and it's actually pretty cool 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:32.639 to look at. 0:19:32.880 --> 0:19:35.800 I love that. So what's our next stop on this tour? 0:19:36.000 --> 0:19:38.600 All right, well, sticking with France, Actually, have you heard 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:42.440 about this controversy surrounding the twenty twenty four Olympic pool? 0:19:43.760 --> 0:19:46.879 I mean, I do remember the drama of like people 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:49.000 swimming in the sein and getting sick. 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:52.720 Well, fortunately this one involves no vomiting, but it does 0:19:52.920 --> 0:19:56.000 involve physics. So do you know what it takes to 0:19:56.000 --> 0:19:57.960 be considered an Olympic sized pool? 0:19:58.000 --> 0:20:02.000 Mango? I mean kind of, but maybe you clarify it 0:20:02.000 --> 0:20:02.240 for me. 0:20:02.640 --> 0:20:04.720