Baltimore's Inner Harbor opens "new chapter" with 150 plunging into the water

BALTIMORE - Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, and 150 others, took a plunge into the Inner Harbor on a steamy Sunday.

This historic day marked a new chapter on Baltimore's iconic water.

The Waterfront Partnership worked for more than a decade on making the Harbor swimmable and fishable, which led to the Harbor Splash, where participants jumped from a floating dock. Here are some photos.

"This is a day not to be overlooked because you are talking about a decade-plus work," Scott said. "So many people believed this was possible despite so many people who believed this wasn't possible. People say that we can't and we are going to show you that not only can we do it, we can do it better than anyone else."

While the Harbor Splash was capped at 150, there were 1,000 on a waiting list.

Since 2010, The Waterfront Partnership, who sponsored this "swim in" to show just how much progress has been made, has worked tirelessly to clean up the waters of the Harbor.

"It has been 14 years in the making. We've come a long way," said Laurie Schwartz, President of the Waterfront Partnership.

The clean-up efforts have been made through Trashwheels, work with the city and state to amp up water, garbage collectors, and the water aquatic gardens, raising and setting free over 300,000 Oysters a year. 

"I'm not from Baltimore, but I got here as fast as I could," Maryland Comptroller Brooke Lierman said. "When I moved here, it didn't occur to me to live anywhere else than near the water. This water centers the city. This water gives us our unique place on the Eastern Seaboard. This water has seen Baltimore's birth and has been with it through wars and depressions and renaissance and rebirth, and at the end, a Harbor we can enjoy through recreation presents a new chapter in the life of the Baltimore Harbor."

On the count of 10, city and state leaders, and dozens of participants, took the plunge into the Inner Harbor on a day when temperatures neared 100 degrees in Baltimore.

"It felt refreshing and amazing," Lierman said. "It's a great day in Baltimore's history. There's more to do, more to swim. Onwards."

Swimmers like Chyno told WJZ he wasn't going to pass on this opportunity to partake in the Harbor Splash.

"I decided to jump in, I'm from Baltimore, and I've always dreamt of a swimmable Inner Harbor," Chyno said. "In 2005, I jumped in as a high school dare, which no one recommended in 2005. If this is the turn of a page of a new chapter of what Baltimore's Inner Harbor could be, I want to be a part of that change."

"This is a big deal for Baltimore," another participant said. "We are excited to be making a part of history."