The Incredible History Of Swimming Pools And Swimming

Have you ever stopped to consider the history of swimming pools? After all, it's only in the past 50 or so years that the technology to build and maintain them became truly affordable, which in turn has led to a veritable explosion in their popularity. But what about before then.

Would you believe the that very first mention of swimming pools has them being built by the ancient Romans, somewhere around 2500B.C. Also you can credit the Romans with building the first heated swimming pool as well. It was built on raised pillars and had slaves stoking fires under it to heat the water.

However; it wasn't until around the middle of the 19th century when it was recorded that six swimming pools with diving boards were built and filled in London. Even then, strict puritanical codes kept a damper on swimming in general. For instance, people were expected to swim fully clothed and men and women swimming together was very much frowned upon.

It goes much further then that because back then there were �polite� modes of swimming and ways of swimming that could get you kicked out of the pool and labeled a rogue. For instance, the standard free style crawl that's the first style of swimming that everyone learns as kids was pretty much banned for being too �rough� and causing too much splashing.

In Europe back then it was the breast stroke that was accepted in swimming pools but across the Atlantic things were about to change. It was the original colonialists who observed the Native Americans diving off of rocks and doing the free style standard crawl that was the first �decadent� seeds of change. Far away from polite society, these first Americans finally were able to �cut loose� and swim how they pleased.