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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. Further information: Cranford, New Jersey § ParksThe 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, the Cranford Canoe Club, Hanson Park, Sperry Park, Crane's Park, Droeschers Mill Park, and Mohawk Park.
- Clark/Winfield
- Rahway, New Jersey. Rahway River Park abuts a graveyard along the river here.
- Linden, New Jersey Hawk Rise Sanctuary. Hawk Rise Sanctuary is a 95-acre ecological preserve and wetland complex in Linden bordering the Rahway River, which was carved out of a former landfill through the combined efforts of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, the city of Linden and the New Jersey Audubon Society.. The boardwalk trail system winds through the Hawk Rise forest, continues along the edge of the former Linden Landfill, and leads to an overlook viewing of the Rahway River and adjacent marshes. It has been open to the public since 2012, bringing scenic walking trails and bird-watching opportunities to a natural area once gated off and hidden behind a variety of industrial land uses. The site contains a surprising diversity of habitats for its relatively small size and urban location. These include forested wetlands, vernal pools, grasslands, shrublands, salt marsh, mudflats, a large pond, and the tidal Rahway River. 163 bird species have been spotted there.
- Middlesex County
- Carteret. Joseph Medwick Memorial Park. Named for famous baseball player Joe Medwick,this park offers scenic river vistas plus ball fields, tennis courts, playgrounds & picnic groves.
Recreation along the Rahway
The Cranford Canoe Club, built in 1908, rents canoes and kayaks for trips on the Rahway River in Cranford. The Rahway Yacht Club, founded in 1904, is a private boating club docked on the river. Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).
The Rahway was once host to a variety of sawmills and gristmills. Droeschers Mill is the last remaining mill on the Rahway.
Flooding, environmental rehab and flood control
The highly urbanized Rahway River watershed in New Jersey suffers from frequent flooding due to extensive development and destruction of riparian wetlands and floodplains.
Floods have caused damage to houses, businesses, municipal facilities and public infrastructure. Portions of the Rahway River Basin have also suffered environmental degradation and opportunities exist for restoration.
The most damaging floods of record within the Rahway River Basin resulted from the storms of July 1938, May 1968, August 1971, August 1973, July 1975, June 1992, October 1996, July 1997, Tropical Storm Floyd in September 1999 , April 2007 Nor’easter, and Hurricane Irene in August 2011. During the April 2007 storm, 70 to 100 homes suffered major damage to first floor and foundations. Union County and the Township of Cranford were declared federal disaster areas as a result of the April 2007 storm. As a result of Hurricane Irene, residents and business owners along the Rahway River have suffered extensive financial losses and personal hardship than in most severe prior storms.
Organizations fighting for flood control and protection of the Rahway River watershed include:
- The Mayors Council on Rahway River Watershed Flood Control. After Hurricane Irene in 2011, mayors of towns along the Rahway River established this organization to find solutions to flooding in the Watershed. Cite error: A
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<The Cranford Environmental Commission ("My Green Cranford") is a statutory board of seven regular Cranford-resident members and two alternates Cranford resident-members.
- Rahway River Association. The purpose of the Rahway River Association is to protect and restore the Rahway River and its ecosystem. Cite error: A
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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.
- http://www.njaudubon.org/SectionHawkRiseSanctuary/Introduction.aspx
- http://ebird.org/content/nj/news/birds-of-lindens-hawk-rise-sanctuary/
- http://www.anjec.org/NJRivers-RahwayRiverWatershed.htm
- http://www.mygreencranford.org/stormwater.html
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
