Katie Pumphrey starts 24-mile swim from Bay Bridge to Inner Harbor

Katie Pumphrey, an artist and ultramarathon swimmer, started her swim at Sandy Point State Park in the shadow of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge on Tuesday and is proceeding up the Patapsco River toward the Inner Harbor.

The painter and sculptor has said she would be the first person to swim the 24-mile stretch, which doubles as a celebration of clean water quality in the harbor. Pumphrey began at about 3 a.m., swimming as the sun came up, her social media showed.

Around 7:30 a.m., Pumphrey was approaching the Bayside Beach in Anne Arundel County, according to her Bay to Baltimore tracker.

She said last month that she hopes to start “in the dark and fighting against an outgoing tide,” before gaining a push from incoming tide later in the swim. “Going from the bay to the river, it’s going to be turbulent. I’m expecting this to be a very tough swim,” Pumphrey said.

Pumphrey picked a warm day to swim, with temperatures expected to reach around 92 degrees in the afternoon. The National Weather Service predicts the water level to rise by 1.93 feet during high tide around 9:52 a.m. in the Baltimore area, said Erik Taylor, a meteorologist for the weather service. Around 5:12 p.m., low tide will take the water down to half a foot above its baseline, which is higher than usual, Taylor said

A full team of physical and emotional support is accompanying Pumphrey on two pontoon boats and a kayak, ensuring that she stops every 30 minutes for water and food. Pumphrey, who started swimming at 5 years old and hasn’t stopped, said she estimates that the swim will take around 12 hours. She swam the English Channel, which is over 20 miles, twice in 2015 and 2022 and planned to swim up to 60,000 yards — about 34 miles — a week leading into the attempt. She has also swum around Manhattan and the Catalina Channel in California.

This story will be updated.