About Irvington, NJ
Irvington Township is a suburb of New York City with a population of 54,220. Irvington Township is in Essex County. Living in Irvington Township offers residents an urban suburban mix feel and most residents rent their homes. In Irvington Township there are a lot of bars and parks. Many families live in Irvington.
History of Irvington, NJ
Fifteen thousand years ago what is now Irvington lay buried under hundreds of feet of glacial ice. As the climate gradually tempered, the glacier loosed its frigid grasp upon the land, and the present-day contours of the town emerged. The Elizabeth River is the chief geographic feature of Irvington, bisecting the town from north to south. The river, which enters Irvington at a point 140 feet above sea level, descends gradually until it crosses into Hillside at an elevation of 70 feet. The land east of the Elizabeth River is a gently rolling plain. To the west of the river a spur of the Orange Mountains reaches 220 feet above sea level at Franklin Terrace. The first inhabitants of the Elizabeth River valley were the Awkinges, Awky, or Hackensacks, a subtribe of the Lenni Lenape. No Indian village is known to have existed in Irvington, but the region’s plentiful game and well-stocked streams leaves little doubt that the Hackensack made their camps here. In 1666 several small vessels from Connecticut sailed up the Passaic River in search of a safe landing. Within a decade Newark’s first settlers laid out highways, erected a meeting house and established themselves on the banks of the river. The next generation looked to the west for additional land. Irvington had been explored soon after Newark was settled: The Indian trail that later became Clinton Ave. led straight to the Elizabeth River and the open meadows of the valley. History has not preserved the name of Irvington’s first European settler nor the date when he and his family cleared the woods to build the first rough cabin here. Tradition has it that Irvington was founded in 1692.
