Evening star., 1925-06-07
CAPITAL BEHIND OTHER CITIES
IN NEEDED BEACH FACILITIES
City Without Large Place for Citizens to S,om With
Summer Here-Many Viii Flock to RiUer
Despite Pollution and No Safeguards.

made a profit which was used in fur
ther improvements at the beach. One
building was used as free bath
house and dressing room for boys.
Several hundred separate dressing
rooms for men and women and girls
are provided. The bathing beach
carries a stock of some 500 dozen
suits for men and half as many for
women, and many thousands OF
towels. A laundry with modern wash
ing, extracting and drying machines.
capable of washing and drying $50
suits an hour was installed on the
second floor of the bathouse.
Both the City of Boston and the
City of New York have maintained
free floating baths, located at inter-
walls along their water fronts. Those
in New York are in the Hudson and
East Rivers. These floating baths
are about 95 feet long, so feet wide
and are floated on eight pontoons.
In the center is a large well divided
in two parts, one for adults and one
for chilaren. The water in the adult
part is Az feet deep and in the chill
dren's part. Pa feet deep. The pol
luton of the river water due to sew
age from the city caused criticism
of the use of the baths, and brought
about the adoption of strict rules for
their use. The floating baths were
provided with attendants. and the
use of the baths was entirely free.
100000 Concrete Bathhouse.
The most popular municipal bathing
beach in New York is at Coney ls-
land. The bathhouse is of reinforced
concrete, costing in the neighborhood
OF 100000 in 1911. 1t is a three-story
building, 60 by 400 feet, and has some
1900 individual dressing rooms. The
municipal bath is about 900 feet long,
and there are accommodations for
many thousand bathers at a time.
Chicago has made great strides in
the matter of providing municipal
bathing facilities for its people. 1t
has the advantage, to be sure. of "a
miles or more of water front on Lake
Michigan. The Clarendon Municipal
Bathing Beach, which was opened in
1916, is a huge beach and bathhouse,
where 10000 or more can be accom-
modated. 1t requires a large number
of attendants, including nearly a score
OF life guards. Children under Is are
provided with lockers, suits and tow
els free of charge. Persons over Is
pay 10 cents. There are several other
large municipal beaches maintained,
and still others are being developed.
Cities in Ohio, New York, Wisconsin
and Michigan, bordering on the Great
Lakes, also have provided municipal
beaches which are used TO a very
great extent. They have in some
cases had TO meet problems of pollu-
ton, due to sewage, in order to pro-
tect the bathers from infection.
Minneapolis Uses Lake.
In Minneapolis, a public bathing
beach. has been maintained on Lake
Calhoun, where 5000 or 5000 bathers
can be cared for. The bathing area
extends $50 feet into the lake and
$50 feet along the shore. The area
of the lake, which is within the city
limits, is about 460 acres. Surface
drainage empties into the lake,
though no sewage. Its banks were
dredged and filled with sand The
lake belongs to a small water system
tributary to the Mississippi River, in
cluding Cedar Lake, Lake of the Isles,
Lake Calhoun and Lake Harriet. con-
nected by outlet with Minnehaha
Creek, which flows into the Missis-
sippi.
These are examples of what other
American cities are doing to provide
bathing facilities for their citizens
The problems in these places have
been carefully studied and everything
guard against infection from the
water and to safeguard the bathers,
while in the water.
The general Introduction of water
carriage of fecal matter, which con-
stitutes the greatest danger in the
pollution of streams or lakes which
are used by bathers, is scarcely cen
tury old. Up to 1915, the public drains
of London were not permitted to re-
ceive such matter, and in Boston it
was not until 1888 and in Paris not
until 1880 that this practice was per-
mitted. But the change in the sys-
tenn of handling such matter, so that
now 1t is practically all water born,
with the increases in the populations
of the cities. has made a great differ
ence in the waters of the rivers, par
ticularly those on which large cities
are situated. However, improved
methods of disposing of sewage are
constantly being devised, and 1t may
be possible to bring about much better
conditions in these waters, the Po-
tomac River included, it is believed.