The Rahway River is a river in Essex, Middlesex, and Union Counties, New Jersey, United States, The Rahway, along with the Elizabeth River, Piles Creek, Passaic River, Morses Creek, and the Fresh Kills River (in Staten Island), has its river mouth at the Arthur Kill.
Part of the extended area of the 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 miles (39 km) long.[1] The upper reaches are lined with several parks while the mouth serves as an industrial access channel on the Chemical Coast.
The river was once on the lands of the Lenape Native Americans, and tradition states that the name is after Rahwack, a local tribal chief.[2][3][4]
The river is the source of drinking water for the City of Rahway.[5] Each spring, the river is stocked with approximately 6,000 trout.[6]
The river is also the source of the name of the Rahway Valley Railroad, which has a bridge over it at the Springfield-Union border.
- ^ New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Watershed Management Area 7 Archived 2006-12-10 at the Wayback Machine, accessed December 1, 2006
- ^ "Rahway" from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition of 1911, accessed January 3, 2007.
- ^ Gannett, Henry. The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States, p. 25. United States Government Printing Office, 1905. Accessed September 21, 2015.
- ^ Hutchinson, Viola L. The Origin of New Jersey Place Names, New Jersey Public Library Commission, May 1945. Accessed September 21, 2015.
- ^ United Water Rahway data on City of Rahway Municipal Water Utility Archived 2006-11-16 at the Wayback Machine, accessed October 11, 2006
- ^ NJDEP Division of Fish & Wildlife 2006 Spring Trout Allocations and In-Season Stocking Days, accessed October 11, 2006