On March 14, 1896, seven thousand people gathered at San Francisco's Ocean Beach to celebrate the official opening of the Sutro Baths, an extravagant public bathhouse envisioned and developed by the eccentric one-time mayor of San Francisco, Adolph Sutro. An early immigrant to the city, the Prussian-born Sutro was a mining engineer, construction expert, and real estate investor who once owned an estimated one-twelfth of San Francisco real estate.

Inside the enormous glass structure that encased the Sutro Baths were seven pools, more than 500 private dressing rooms, viewing galleries, restaurants, and natural history exhibits. The pools were filled with steam-heated sea water piped in from the Pacific.

To ensure that transportation to the baths remained affordable, Sutro built his own trolley line from downtown San Francisco. Access was also available via the Cliff House Railroad, built between 1886 and 1888 and later absorbed by the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1894. The film Panoramic View of the Golden Gate features the scenic portion of the Cliff House Railroad route along the bluffs and cliffs of Lands End (at the northwest corner of San Francisco) overlooking the Golden Gate and the Marin headlands.