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| ==Parks along the Rahway== | ==Parks along the Rahway== | ||
| A map to the Rahway River parks is available.<ref>Parks along the Rahway River Parkway | |||
| https://goo.gl/maps/bg6c4K3RyYK2.</ref> | |||
| *Essex County | *Essex County | ||
| *] | *] | ||
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| **Westfield/Mountainside. Echo Lake Park is situated on a lake formed on Nomahegan Brook, a tributary of the Rahway. | **Westfield/Mountainside. Echo Lake Park is situated on a lake formed on Nomahegan Brook, a tributary of the Rahway. | ||
| **]. The Cranford section of the Rahway River Parkway follows the banks of the meandering Rahway River as it flows south through Lenape Park, Nomahegan Park, Hampton Park, MacConnell Park, Hanson Park, Sperry Park, Crane's Park, ] Park, and Mohawk Park.<ref>, Friends of Rahway River Parkway. Accessed November 7, 2016.</ref> The Cranford Canoe Club rents canoes and kayaks for trips on the Rahway River in Cranford. | **]. The Cranford section of the Rahway River Parkway follows the banks of the meandering Rahway River as it flows south through Lenape Park, Nomahegan Park, Hampton Park, MacConnell Park, Hanson Park, Sperry Park, Crane's Park, ] Park, and Mohawk Park.<ref>, Friends of Rahway River Parkway. Accessed November 7, 2016.</ref> The Cranford Canoe Club rents canoes and kayaks for trips on the Rahway River in Cranford. | ||
| {{further information|Cranford, New Jersey#Parks}} | {{further information|Cranford, New Jersey#Parks}} | ||
| **Clark/Winfield | **Clark/Winfield | ||
| **]. Rahway River Park abuts a graveyard along the river here. | **]. Rahway River Park abuts a graveyard along the river here. | ||
Revision as of 23:16, 20 November 2016
The Rahway River is a tributary of the Arthur Kill in Essex, Middlesex and Union Counties, New Jersey in the United States.
Part of the extended area of New York-New Jersey Harbor Estuary, draining part of the suburban and urbanized area of New Jersey west of Staten Island, New York, the river is approximately 24 mi (48 km) long. The upper reaches are lined with several urban parks while the mouth serves as an industrial access channel.
The river is the source of drinking water for the City of Rahway. Each spring, the river is stocked with approximately 6,000 trout.
The river is also the source of the name for the Rahway Valley Railroad which has a bridge over it on the Springfield/Union border.
The American painter Hugh Bolton Jones (1848–1927) depicts the Rahway River in his 1880s work "Spring," part of the collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Several landscape artists of the 19th century also painted the Rahway River's woodland scenes en plein air, including Frank Townsend Lent and Bruce Crane, who painted in Cranford, and the aforementioned Hugh Bolton Jones.
Route
The Rahway River rises in Essex County as two separate branches.
- The West Branch begins at spring-fed Crystal Lake in West Orange and flows south through the South Mountain Reservation in the valley between first and second ridges of the Watchung Mountains. It runs directly through downtown Millburn.
- The East Branch rises as a surface stream in West Orange and forms part of the boundary between West Orange and Orange, then travels through the towns of South Orange and Maplewood.
The two branches meet at Hobart Gap near Interstate 78, continuing south through the Union County communities of Springfield, Union, Cranford and Clark. In Rahway the river receives the Robinson's Branch and South Branch, which are approximately 10 mi (16 km) long. The South Branch starts in Roosevelt Park in Edison behind the Menlo Park Mall, and flows through Edison, Iselin, and Rahway. The river's mouth is at Arthur Kill between Carteret (on the south) and Linden (on the north) and opposite Port Mobil on Staten Island.
Rahway River Parkway
The Rahway River Parkway is a greenway of parkland that hugs the Rahway River and its tributaries. It was designed in the 1920s by the Olmsted Brothers firm, who were the sons of the landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.
The "Friends of Rahway River Parkway," a nonprofit group, has been formed exclusively to encourage and advocate for the preservation, restoration and enhancement of the Rahway River Parkway, in accord with the Olmsted design principles inherent in its origins, and to promote appropriate public enjoyment of the Parkway.
Parks along the Rahway
A map to the Rahway River parks is available.
- Essex County
- Union County, New Jersey
- Springfield, New Jersey. Briant Park.
- Westfield/Mountainside. Echo Lake Park is situated on a lake formed on Nomahegan Brook, a tributary of the Rahway.
- Cranford, New Jersey. The Cranford section of the Rahway River Parkway follows the banks of the meandering Rahway River as it flows south through Lenape Park, Nomahegan Park, Hampton Park, MacConnell Park, Hanson Park, Sperry Park, Crane's Park, Droeschers Mill Park, and Mohawk Park. The Cranford Canoe Club rents canoes and kayaks for trips on the Rahway River in Cranford.
- Clark/Winfield
- Rahway, New Jersey. Rahway River Park abuts a graveyard along the river here.
- Linden, New Jersey Hawk Rise Sanctuary.
- Middlesex County
- Carteret. Joseph Medwick Park.
See also
References
- New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Watershed Management Area 7, accessed December 1, 2006
- United Water Rahway data on City of Rahway Municipal Water Utility, accessed October 11, 2006
- NJDEP Division of Fish & Wildlife 2006 Spring Trout Allocations and In-Season Stocking Days, accessed October 11, 2006
- Artist:H. Bolton Jones (1848–1927) Date:1885–86 Medium:Oil on canvas Dimensions:24 1/4 x 40 1/8 in. (61.6 x 101.9 cm) Classification:Paintings Credit Line:Gift of George I. Seney, 1887 Accession Number:87.8.9 http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/11279 http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/11279
- American Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: A catalogue of works. Edited by Kathleen Luhrs (noting that Hugh Bolton Jones used the Rahway River as a subject); In "Souvenir of Cranford" (1894), Lent discusses his experiences with other landscape artists depicting the Rahway River in Cranford, New Jersey:
The first the writer ever heard of Cranford was back in 1880, when his artist friend Bruce Crane (1857–1937)] told him that he was packing up his sketching apparatus and impedimenta preparatory to going to sketch in the neighborhood of Cranford, which he considered one of the most delightfully picturesque sections of country anywhere around or near New York City. The National Academy of Design, as well as other metropolitan art exhibitions, have contained many charming landscapes by such men as Bruce Crane and Hugh Bolton Jones, the material for which was gathered in Union County."
- Paths, Trails and Greenways: Rahway River, Union County, New Jersey. Accessed November 7, 2016.
- Historic Olmsted Design, Friends of Rahway River Parkway. Accessed November 7, 2016.
- http://www.rahwayriverparkway.org/
- Parks along the Rahway River Parkway https://goo.gl/maps/bg6c4K3RyYK2.
- The Inception of a Parkway, Friends of Rahway River Parkway. Accessed November 7, 2016.
External links
- Rahway River Association
- Rahway River Greenway Project
- U.S. Geological Survey: NJ stream gaging stations
- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: Rahway River Flood Protection and Ecosystem Restoration Study
- Photo and brief narrated history of river carnivals along the Rahway in Cranford
- 40°35′40″N 74°12′23″W / 40.5945°N 74.2064°W / 40.5945; -74.2064 – Mouth of the Rahway River
