MR. SUTRO’s NOVEL AQUARIUM
A Structure That Will Entrap the Dwellers of the Sea

Mention has been made in the newspapers from time to time of an aquarium that Mr. Adolph Sutro intended to build out upon the ocean beach, near the Cliff house. In fact the walls of an aquarium were built in that vicinity a little over a year ago, but a great storm came and laid the walls low and nothing has been done until lately to start in anew to build such a structure. Quite recently the plans were made for a new aquarium and the walls are now going up. The structure will be finished in a month or six weeks. In Mr. Sutro's brain many a brilliant idea has taken root, but a more brilliant one than that of the plan for a most unique aquarium never found lodgment there. This aquarium will not be like others, nor will it be stocked with fish and other marine objects that were already caught, but it will be a kind of trap itself to catch living creatures that make their home in the sea.
 Those who have been out to the Cliff house and have descended the steps that lead to the beach will doubtless have noticed a little cove sheltered between two high rocks about one hundred feet from the steps. In this cove the aquarium is now being built. The aquarium will consist of a round wall of rock 50 feet In diameter, 15 feet thick and 14 feet high and it will be roofless. The flooring will be made to a unique way, according to Mr. Sutro’s plans. Solid pathways of rock will be built around the interior of the aquarium, and between them there will be little ponds of water that will be three and four feet deep at low water. The water will come into these ponds from the ocean with fish and other marine objects in the following strange manner: A tunnel 300 feet long and eight feet high will be bored through the rock between the ocean and the aquarium, and at the seaward side of the tunnel there will be wirescreen gates, which can be opened and shut. At high tide the gates will be suffered to remain open, so that the water and the living objects in it can come freely into the aquarium. At high water the whole aquarium will be flooded – the pathways and everything – and no one can go in then. When the tide begins to recede the gates are shut, and only the water can flow through them. The living objects will be retarded, and will seek the comparatively deep waters in the ponds, and thus they will be caught as in a trap. When the waters have receded sufficiently from the pathways the public will be admitted inside the walls.
This, in brief, is a description of one of the most original aquariums ever designed. That it will prove an interesting place for the scientific man, naturalist and general public to while away a few hours there can be no doubt. Sea anemones, devil-fish, angel-fish, starfish, crustaceans, shells, all varieties of large and small fish, and perhaps even occasional seals may be caught in this aquarium. At low tide there will always be something interesting to see there.
The music pavilion to be built at the Cliff house by Mr. Sutro is making progress slowly. Some of the loose rock must be blasted away to secure a solid foundation before the structure can be begun. The work of blasting and excavating is now going on.
San Francisco Morning Call - 1 May 1887