More than 250 swimmers jumped into the Chicago River on Sunday morning, marking the first open-river swim in the once-polluted urban waterway in nearly a century.

After a false start last year, the city approved the Chicago River Swim event earlier this summer. A local nonprofit, A Long Swim, organized the historic 2-mile race through the river’s downtown branch, which raised funds for ALS research at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and swim safety education for at-risk children in Chicago.

Beyond its charitable angle, the swim marked a significant milestone for the health of the Chicago River, once known as a fetid soup of industrial and animal waste rather than a recreational hub fit for humans.

“This is a really monumental day for the city of Chicago and for the

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