Those of us living in Austin, Texas, thrill on a daily basis to what many have called the jewel of our city: Barton Springs, our aquifer-fed natural pool located in the heart of the city. 1/8 of a mile long, Barton Springs is known to be one of the longest pools in North America. The temperature is always 66-68 degrees, and thousands have been year-round swimmers there since the early part of the last century. I remember the day in 1980 when I decided several things I would do for the rest of my life: I would walk, I would do yoga, and I would swim. I’m still doing those things.
South America has something that dwarfs our lengthy oasis here in the middle of our Texas city, and is apparently the harbinger of more exciting things to come in the the future of swimming pools. The artificial lagoon, San Alfonso del Mar, is at the moment the largest swimming pool in the world, according to Guinness World Records. It is located in Chile, in Algarrobo, a small beach resort town south of Valparaiso. Designed by Chilean developer Fernando Fischmann, the lagoon is eight hectares in size, holds 250,000 cubic meters of water, and is one whole kilometer long. Over 5 times as long and much, much wider than Barton Springs, it is the equivalent of 6,000 standard-sized pools. The temperature is maintained at a constant 9 degrees warmer than the neighboring Pacific ocean.
The purified seawater lagoon uses at least 10 times less chemicals used in standard swimming pools to maintain its cleanliness through a process called “Pulse Oxidation,” developed by Fischmann, who is also a biochemist. Water from the Pacific Ocean is pumped and filtered into the pool, where the resulting waters are crystal clear. The lagoon cost $3.5 million to build, and requires $4 million a year to maintain.
There are more pools planned by Fischmann’s company, Crystal Lagoons, and it will be interesting to see what is coming in the future, and where. But for now, Read more about it, see more photographs, and watch a Reuter’s video at the following site named Spluch.
See another collection of videos HERE.
I hope by now everybody has realized Algarrobo is NOT in the south, but in the CENTER of Chile. It may be a small country, but being it is 2,600 miles long there is a big difference when you talk about center or south.
Thank you, Eva. I have corrected the erroneous reference to southern Chile and note that Algarobbo is south of Valparaiso (which is not far from Santiago) and not in the southern part of the country. Here is a view of it on google maps: http://www.maplandia.com/chile/san-antonio/algarrobo/
Chile must surely be the longest and skinniest country. Reminiscent of Burma/Myanmar.
Beverly, part of Austin’s “master plan” for Barton Springs includes doubling its length. It would extend all the way to the waterfall on Barton Springs, thereby incorporating the stone-surrounded smaller spring-fed pool (I think that’s called Parthenia Springs) that’s currently downstream from the existing large pool. As your fellow regular visitor to Barton Springs, I vote yes!
Noticed how crowded it’s gotten this year? As the new downtown Austin condos get filled up, Barton Springs needs to spread out!
Deborah
Deborah,
What a GREAT idea for Barton Springs to increase in size. I vote “YES” as well, as I can only see extending the length as an improvement on something that is already nearly perfect.
How do we love it, let me count the ways: Part of the charm of Barton Springs is the natural rock, and the extension would incorporate much of the natural formations. The other charms are its already unusual length and of course, the natural waters.
For readers who want to know more about Austin’s Barton Springs, look here:
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/parks/bartonsprings.htm
Beverly
If it were in southern Chile it would have been a tad cool to swim in!
gee!! wanna have a glimpse of that!
Always good to read about swimming, my ex was an olympic swimmer..
Can I ask though - how did you get this picked up and into google news?
Very impressive, is it something that is just up to Google or you actively created?
Obviously this is a popular blog with great data so well done on your seo success..
As of yet, Google is a mystery to me. Most of us doing blogs try to point readers to interesting information. It’s hard to guess who might think what is interesting, and that goes for Google too!
that pool is so big i fly over it last year and you can see it just fine its crazy grande
I plan to visit the pool this year!
hello. very beautiful and a huge swimming pool. there necessarily come.
That is amazing!
It is exciting to swim in that pool.
It would be an awesome experience to explore there.
It was an expensive project but resulted to quality accomplishment.
Interesting that so much money can be spent on such a beautiful project. Not all people have money like that. Some have to survive on payday loans from time to time. Should government regulate the peoples right to choice? At one time women and minorities did not even have a legal right to a loan and it seems that history is trying to reverse itself. check out this article on the history of the struggle:
http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/2008/09/15/martin-luther-king-the-fight-of-the-poeple-to-access-financial-resources/