The Parish Magazine February 2026

TWENTY IS NOT A BRIDG
20 The Parish Magazine — February 2026
FEATURE
FOR MARATHON SWIMM
In early January 2025, writes Stuart Bowman, I was
notified that my application to attempt the Twenty Bridges
swim in New York City had been accepted and that I had
beeen allocated the 19 July.
I had applied with two other English Channel swimmer
friends, one of whom I swam Robben Island to Cape Town
with in April 2024, and both of whom I regularly train with.
We were delighted to find that we would all swim within 24
hours of each other, meaning we could be there not only to
support one another, but also enjoy and spend time together
in NYC afterwards.
The 20 Bridges swim is a complete 28.5 mile loop of
Manhattan and the name comes from the fact that you swim
under the 20 bridges that link Manhattan with Brooklyn, Ward
Island, The Bronx and New Jersey.. The deal was struck that
Debs, my wife, would be my support crew for the swim as long
there was a family holiday in New York and Connecticut, and
so we flew out with another swimmer on Tuesday 15 July, closely
followed by the third swimmer and his family.
A QUICK SWIM
We spent a few days enjoying the city, including a quick
swim at Coney Island — before the Friday briefing with
our kayakers who would escort us the following day on our
circumnavigation of the Big Apple. Debs would be on a RIB —
a Rigid Inflatable Boat.
The briefing was fairly straight forward, with the key
objective of swimming hard at the start to make Hells Gate
— where the East River meets the Harlem River — before the
tide turned.
The waters around Manhattan are complex due to the
tidal flows and there was real pressure to ensure we hit
Hells Gate at the correct time otherwise the swim would be
impossible to complete. Perhaps more worryingly was in the
briefing that the support crew could only get into the water
to cool off when told that the water was safe. There then
followed stories about what had been seen in the Harlem
river over recent days, including, rats, various dead animals
and syringes being the more printable of the items listed!
CHOPPY?
Saturday arrived and our start time was a civilised 2.30pm
so we met an hour or so before at North Cove Marina on the
Hudson under the shadow of the One World Trade Centre.
Once swim ready I with Sami, and two American
swimmers jumped on to our respective ribs for the short trip
to Pier A where the swim would start.
Pier A is at the southern end of Manhattan on the Hudson
side and is just around the corner from the Staten Island
ferry terminal.
We were soon given the nod to jump into the water, wait
for the horn to sound and then start swimming.
To say it was choppy is an understatement, and after the
horn sounded off I went, quickly passing the ferry terminal
hoping that the swell would die down once I entered the East
River but sadly it didn’t and I struggled to find a rhythm in
the early part of the swim.
It wasn’t long before the first bridge — the impressive
Brooklyn Bridge — was in sight and as I passed underneath
the water started to settle and I too started to settle into the
swim.
Despite being conscious of needing to make good progress
I could not stop myself making sure I was taking in the
amazing skyline of lower Manhattan. It is very special to see
the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings from water level mid
river. There was a lot of activity in the East River in terms of
boat traffic and it wasn’t too long before I was swimming past
the UN building which again is amazing from the water. The