San Francisco — In 1956, the Golden Gate Bridge had been in operation for just under 20 years. The historic Sutro Baths building was still standing, although the baths had been replaced by an ice skating rink in 1937. You could spend the day at Playland-at-the-Beach, just across the street from Golden Gate Park; Playland shut down in 1972, and nowadays you’d never even know it was ever there.

I’ve spent a lot of time studying these slides from 1956, but I only recently noticed what looked like a pier in the background of the photos taken at Ocean Beach. Since I know there’s no fishing pier to be found there these days, I was curious to learn more about it and to find out when it was removed.

After searching online, I learned this pier held a pipeline that carried ocean water to a saltwater pool in downtown San Francisco; even though the baths closed in 1936, the pier remained standing for another 30 years. But as a result of my search, I also found this cool video of home movies shot in 1930, showing a few different San Francisco sights, including Ocean Beach, commuter ferries in the Bay, and Market Street.