Hi Rick, My times have changed. When I lived in New York (Manhattan) prewar and post war - till '47, I used to paddle a Klepper foldboat up and down the Hudson. From Dykman Street towards Yonkers if the tide was coming in, or down to 79th Street Boat Basin if it was going out. In those days the Hudson was an open cess pool. Swim in that water.....? No way. I had to disinfect the skin of the boat before I folded it up and put it away. All the effluent from up river, Albany, Troy, Kingston, Poughkeepsie, Newburgh, and on down to New York City itself, was dumped into the Hudson. The river looked lovely from the George Washington Bridge, just don't get too close to it..... Three cheers if it is now clean enough to swim in. Connie