WHATEVER your political ideology, you have to give Gov. George E. Pataki credit for his efforts to revive the near-extinct pastime of swimming in the Hudson River. In late June, the State released the results of a two-year feasibility study jointly commissioned by the Department of Environmental Conservation and the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historical Preservation which identified 13 sites where new Hudson River swimming beaches could be established...

It would be a fitting legacy for the governor who gives the impression that under his loyal conservative facade lives an inner Teddy Roosevelt, screaming to be released.

In 1609, Henry Hudson provided the first documentation of swimming in the Hudson River, noting in his log that on September 23 Indians approached his ship, some in canoes, some swimming, as he sailed up the waterway on his way, he hoped, not to Poughkeepsie, but to China.

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