{"id":9162,"date":"2023-10-25T18:35:12","date_gmt":"2023-10-25T17:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aboutriver.com\/?p=9162"},"modified":"2023-10-25T18:35:12","modified_gmt":"2023-10-25T17:35:12","slug":"can-you-swim-across-the-mississippi-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aboutriver.com\/can-you-swim-across-the-mississippi-river\/","title":{"rendered":"Can You Swim Across The Mississippi River"},"content":{"rendered":"
The waters of the Mississippi River, which run from Minnesota all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico, conjure up all kinds of images for many people – Lewis and Clark following its course to explore the western reaches of the Louisiana Purchase, Mark Twain’s steamboats, jazz music emanating from its docks, and giant barges going up and down carrying all kinds of goods. But one thing it may be less known for is swimming, as many people have wondered if it is even possible to swim all the way across such an expansive, powerful flowing river. <\/p>\n
One person who was able to swim across the Mississippi River was a man by the name of G. H. Bass in 1950, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior<\/a>. He reportedly graduated from Vicksburg High School in Mississippi and then decided he wanted to attempt to swim the length of his father’s dream, and so he trained for two years in order to prepare for the swim. After he finally accomplished the feat of swimming 3,860 feet across the Mississippi River, it took him three hours to do it.<\/p>\n However, the downside of such an accomplishment is that Bass swam from a riverbank in Vicksburg, across to the Louisiana side, and not along the entire length of the Mississippi River. Therefore, reaching with swimming some 3,860 feet may be one thing, but attempting to swim the entire length of the river, which measures 2,330 miles in total, is something else entirely and remains beyond the full capabilities of any human. <\/p>\n