“Until the middle of the 20th century, swimming in the NYC-stretch of the Hudson was a normal summer activity. While the city lacked the lifeguard beaches found in the Palisades on the New Jersey side of the river, from the 1870s to the 1940s it had a series of floating baths that moved around on pontoons to the apparent delight of swimmers up and down the west side of Manhattan.
A perfect example of nature tamed, the baths were filled with the half-salt/half-fresh water of the river itself while protecting swimmers from the river’s considerable tides, currents, and depths. The last of the floating baths were moored at West 96th Street”
“Floating baths existed in New York from at least the early 19th century. They became more popular after the Civil War as public health advocates called for legislation to create municipally owned baths.
The city’s first free public floating baths debuted in the Hudson and East Rivers in 1870, expanding to 15 by 1890. The baths were 95 feet long and 60 feet wide, floated on eight pontoons placed four on each side. In the center of each floating bath was a large well divided into two parts, one 93 feet long and 34 feet wide for adults, and one 70 feet long and 8 feet wide for children.
The depth of the water in the large well was 4 ½ feet and in the small one 2 ½ feet. There were 68 dressing rooms opening upon a small gangway around the edge of the well. They were open from late June or early July to early October. In 1911, 1,818,721 patrons used floating baths.
By the 1920s environmental degradation of the city’s rivers tainted the floating bath experience, and the facilities were slowly taken out of commission. When Parks took over jurisdiction of Manhattan’s nine bathhouses in 1938 after the city charter was revised, the agency refurbished three of the last six remaining floating baths and docked them at 96th Street and the Hudson River; the baths only lasted a couple more years.”
