Blackie's Swim: A Horse Crosses the Golden Gate in 1938
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On October 1, 1938, a 12-year-old swaybacked horse named Blackie swam the Golden Gate to settle a bet. He did it in 23 minutes and 15 seconds, and he towed a man who could not swim.
The bet
Richard "Shorty" Roberts ran Roberts-at-the-Beach, a roadhouse on the Great Highway in San Francisco. Bill Kyne of the Bay Meadows racetrack told him horses could not swim. Roberts said his horse could swim the Golden Gate. The wager is most often given as $1,000.
The swim
Blackie started on the Marin side near Lime Point and came ashore near Fort Point, about seven eighths of a mile. A rowboat went ahead with Roberts's brother holding out sugar cubes. Roberts made the crossing too, holding on behind the horse. Two human swimmers went at the same time, and Blackie beat them both. A short newsreel of the swim survives.
Accounts differ on how Blackie got into the water. One has him lowered from a fishing boat in a sling. Another has him walking in.
Blackie's Pasture
In Tiburon, a horse named Blackie stood in the same pasture at Tiburon Boulevard and Trestle Glen Road for 28 years, starting around 1938. A life-size bronze by Albert Guibara has stood there since 1995, put up by the Tiburon Peninsula Foundation.
Several accounts, Wikipedia's among them, say this was the same horse that made the swim. Not everyone agrees, and some histories of the Tiburon horse do not mention the swim at all. We have not found a record that settles it. If you have one, we would like to see it.
Blackie's swim is one entry in the full Bay Area horse history timeline.