The Elizabeth River had one of its origin
from a spring on Brookwood Street near South Orange Avenue. This
river flowed southerly across South Orange Avenue to Brookdale Avenue
and then to Valley Street. Since circa 1900 this portion of the
River was piped underground. It surfaced at Valley Street and as
a river it flowed through Irvington, Union, Hillside, Elizabeth,
Arthur Kill, then Raritan Bay to the Atlantic Ocean. All the water
from the streets in Vailsburg and Ivy Hill entered storm sewers
and flowed into the Elizabeth River. We could honestly say that
all the water from our streets is literally discharged into the
Atlantic Ocean.
No one in Vailsburg every called it the Elizabeth River. Everyone
always referred to it by its functional name the "Trunk Sewer".
Back in the late 1930's my parents lived on Underwood Street.
It was a dead end street because of the Trunk Sewer. See the attached
picture. One summer night around 2:00 A.M. they heard a terrifying
scream from an old Italian man. This poor soul had drank to much
wine and on his way home from the club mistakenly walked down Underwood
Street. He cut across in the darkness what he thought was a vacant
lot. Much to his surprise he fell into the Trunk Sewer. The water
was up to his chin and he was fighting for his life. He was yelling
as loud as he could " Helpa me I'ma drowning ". My father
who was a Newark Policeman got out of his bed and went down to the
Trunk Sewer with a flashlight. He saved his life by telling the
man to standup and walk to the side of the bank where he pulled
him out. The water was 18" deep. That's a true story from 64
years ago.
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