- British endurance swimmer Lewis Pugh began his month-long swim down the Hudson River.
- He is doing his 315-mile swim unassisted, with just a Speedo, goggles, and swim cap.
A British long-distance swimmer is making the 315-mile trek down New York's Hudson River.
Lewis Pugh is embarking on the first unassisted swim of the river to raise awareness for the "health of rivers and the importance of restoring these precious waterways," he told CNN earlier this month.
"I've been looking for a river for many, many years which could tell the story about all rivers," 53-year-old Pugh told The New York Times. "And always, every single time, it comes back to the Hudson."
An experienced distance swimmer from Plymouth, England, he previously swam the 325-mile English Channel, the Times reported.
For this swim, he told the Times he'll be unassisted, working only with a Speedo, goggles, and a cap – no gloves or fins to propel him along faster. Another man, Christopher Swain, swam the length of the Hudson in 2004, though he wore a wetsuit, according to the Times.
"Your swim can be over on Day 1," Pugh told the Times, noting that he could come into contact with toxic chemicals, "human sewage," rodents, snakes, and other dangerous pests.
The river has been the subject of a decades-long recovery effort after it was used as a pollution and sewage dumping ground, but some areas of the river remain contaminated and generally unsafe for swimmers, according to the Albany Times Union.
"It shows how a river can be misused and then cared for and turn around its fate," Pugh told The New York Times. "And so it gives hope to people who live on the Ganges, the people who live on the Yangtze, the Nile, the Seine or here in England on the River Thames. That your river can be saved."
Pugh plans to finish his swim in lower Manhattan on September 13, and he hopes that with increased awareness and commitments to sustainability, someday all rivers will be "drinkable, fishable and swimmable," the Times reported.