Swimming around Manhattan was not new: it dated back to at least 1915, when teenager Robert Dowling, Jr., completed the first recorded circumnavigation of the island, finishing in just under 14 hours. The next year, Miss Ida Elionsky broke Dowling’s mark by over two hours with a time of 11 hours, 35 minutes.

The first known group swim around Manhattan was held in 1928 under the aegis of the International Professional Swimmers Association, and recurred for several years, generally attracting about two dozen swimmers each year. Several solo swimmers circled the island successfully over the next five decades, including famed swimmer Diana Nyad, who completed the journey in 1975 in 7 hours, 57 minutes. During her swim Nyad kept herself alert by internally reciting “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.” (When swimming long distance, keeping mentally and emotionally focused is just as vital as being physically prepared.)

In 1981 retired New York City police officer Tom Hetzel, a childhood friend of Gallagher and a veteran of eight crossings of the 21-mile-wide English Channel, was preparing to swim around Manhattan just a few months after Gallagher’s son’s death. Hetzel invited Gallagher to ride in the accompanying boat, thinking it might be therapeutic for him. It was a hot day, and after awhile Gallagher decided to jump in to help pace Hetzel. Before he knew it, they had swum through the Harlem River and were in the Hudson, looking up at the George Washington Bridge. Although Gallagher had been competing for years as a shorter-distance swimmer in U.S. Masters Swimming, he was surprised he could swim so far without special training.

The next year, after further prodding from Hetzel, Gallagher decided to take up marathon swimming and honor his son at the same time. He envisioned three purposes for an organized swim: to bring more swimming events to the Eastern seaboard, to make the public aware that swimming was a very active sport outside the Olympic Games, and to remind all that Manhattan is an island.

In July, Gallagher and Hetzel held a “publicity swim,” where Gallagher, then age 43, completed the course in 7 hours, 14 minutes, 42 seconds, setting a record and earning him an award from Sports Illustrated magazine. The first MIMS was held two months later, on September 14, 1982, featuring 12 swimmers from around the country. It started and ended near Gracie Mansion along the Upper East Side. The starting and ending locations have varied over the years; today it is the South Cove of the World Financial Center along the Hudson.

MIMS continued as an annual summer event for the next decade. As many as 40 enthusiastic swimmers participated some years, but by the early 1990s interest had stalled in both MIMS and in swimming in general. New York City was also going through a fiscal crisis that brought budget cuts to many programs, including the Parks Department’s Learn to Swim classes at public pools around the city.

Within these challenges to local swimming, Morty Berger, a young businessman, distance swimmer and two-time MIMS competitor, sensed an opportunity to both revitalize MIMS and help the Learn to Swim program.

He approached then-Parks Commissioner Henry Stern and proposed that the Parks Department help support MIMS. In return, proceeds from MIMS would be turned over to reinstitute and help fund the public swimming program. Stern agreed, and in time both organizations would reap the benefits.

In 1993 Berger established what is now know as NYC Swim, to serve as umbrella organization to oversee MIMS. That year’s race attracted 10 swimmers and a lot of press attention, but the coverage focused more on water quality and environmental concerns than the swim itself. Berger set out to show the media and the public that the water was safe to swim in. Berger gathered and promoted research studies that showed definitive improvement in water quality, and in 1995 organized and hosted the first New York City Water Festival, designed to change the perception of the waterways around Manhattan.

To get more swimmers in the water and get more people to the waterfront in general, Berger opened MIMS to relay teams in 1994, and then worked with the Parks Department, Hudson River Park Trust, Battery Park City Parks and others to create a series of shorter swim races in the Hudson River to complement MIMS. In 1997, the nearly three-mile-long Great Hudson River Swim (course was changed in 2009) was introduced, and the next year the nearly eight-mile Little Red Lighthouse Swim (named after the famed landmark at the base of the George Washington Bridge) and then the 2.4-mile Wrong Way Swim.

Today, NYC Swim presents a dozen events each year, including one swim/run event known as an aquathlon; the two-mile Governors Island Swim around that historic island; the one-kilometer Brooklyn Bridge Swim from Brooklyn to Manhattan, which passes under the famous span; and the Ederle Swim, a 17.5-mile swim form Sandy Hook, NJ to Battery Park, named after the most famous female swimmer in history. Total participation in these events has grown from a few dozen in the early years to over 2,100 swimmers in 2010.

But MIMS remains the central swim as the 25th anniversary was celebrated 2007. It’s bigger and better than ever, and has become so popular that registration for the event fills up in less than an hour each year. The swimmers come from around the world – nearly every state and more than two dozen nations have been represented – and have ranged in age from 12 to 77. They have been doctors, lawyers, truck drivers, waiters and nurses. Some have been new to marathon swimming; others are veterans of other long-distance swims around the world. Most successfully complete MIMS somewhere between seven to nine hours, depending on the current and other conditions. Each is accompanied by a boat, a kayaker and supporters. For all, it is a labor of love, requiring tremendous patience, devotion and dedication through months of training. But as any marathon swimmer can tell you, the rewards of conquering a major waterway are priceless.

Of course, neither MIMS nor NYC Swim would exist were it not for a legion of volunteers working with Berger to attend to every detail of every race: administrators, coordinators, boat crews, kayakers, time checkers, lifeguards, and countless others. No detail is overlooked in making the experience of every swimmer in MIMS and every other race a successful and memorable one. The assistance of a plethora of New York City agencies and organizations, most notably the Coast Guard, Police Department, Hudson River Park Trust, and the Fire Department, cannot be overstated.