Psychogeography: Adrift In Elizabeth

Posted: Wednesday June 10, 2026

Psychogeography? If you're scratching your head, check out this brief blog post here.

Elizabeth holds the title as the fourth largest city, population-wise, in New Jersey, but no one remembers fourth place. Considering the nearby cities of Newark, Jersey City, and Paterson in that order make up the top three most populous cities in NJ, it makes sense that Elizabeth gets a bit lost in the urban sprawl between them all. Even Newark Liberty International Airport pays no homage in its name to the fact that nearly half the airport is actually in the City of Elizabeth. Flying into or out of the new Terminal A at Newark, well you're actually in Elizabeth. Driving Frelinghuysen Ave (State Route 27) south through Newark and suddenly the road name changes to Newark Ave, well now you're actually in Elizabeth.

Yet, Elizabeth is very much its own unique place. The Mid-Town (downtown) district as defined by the crossing of Broad Street and West Jersey Street, with the North East Corridor tracks basically cutting the city in half, remains just as lively a place as the four corners of Broad Street and Market Street in neighboring Newark. Elizabeth though, has a very different vibe from the notorious Brick City. The neighborhoods west of the North East Corridor tracks skew straight-up suburban in many areas, especially the closer you get to Union Township. Now, make your way east of the New Jersey Turnpike, which is effectively a massive scar ripped across the historic Elizabethport Neighborhood, and the vibe shifts again from suburban to a much more inner-city feel, with dense housing stock. Last, but not least is of course, the massive industrial No Man's land better known as Newark - Elizabeth Marine Terminal.

If you ever bought some plastic garbage off Amazon or Ali Express at 2 in the morning only to forget you even purchased it, there's a good chance your capitalist impulse buys started the journey to your front door at the Port of Elizabeth, as it was unloaded from some Mediterranean Shipping Company container. Overall, there is a lot that goes on in Elizabeth that I think just gets blended in with the greater Newark area. And unless you're driving downtown past the iconic Union County Courthouse building, it can be tricky to visually tell when you even exit the boundaries of Newark and enter into Union County.

My interest in Elizabeth does not actually begin with exploring its abandoned buildings, as it does with most cities, but rather with the Elizabeth River. Just north of town, the mighty Passaic River carves its way through Newark before emptying into the massive Newark Bay. However, in contrast, the more timid Elizabeth River slowly snakes its way 'round Elizabeth before sputtering out near the abandoned South Front Street Bridge, just a smidge west of the Arthur Kill and a landfill that people choose to "live" on called Staten Island.

I've always had a bit of an interest with channelized rivers, that is, flowing bodies of water encased in a sort of open concrete casket, designed as a "flood control" method. From the iconic Los Angeles River in California, to the Conemaugh River in Johnstown Pennsylvania and even portions of the Roaring Brook in Scranton, Pennsylvania. There is something uneasy about these concrete lined man-made altered rivers that evokes a sense of bleakness whenever I witness them, a bleakness that is as fascinating as it is repulsive and a feeling that inspires me to further explore and photograph them. Channelized rivers are the very epitome of humanity expelling the essence of undisturbed Nature at the expense of attempting to tame Nature's wildest force. At best, we've designed cities that no longer flood. But the flip-side is these cities now have an un-natural river running through them that looks like it's from a dystopian horror film.

The Elizabeth River as it wanders through Elizabeth is no different. The murky water glistening atop with a rainbow sheen is guided through an open cut concrete trench sliced directly through most of the Mid-Town district, yet completely fenced in and off-limits to the people. Sure, you can see the river, but its banks have been eliminated, instead replaced with vertical cement walls, 20 feet deep, purposely guiding the river as it snakes its way south to Elizabeth River Parkway and Mattano Park, at which point the water is deemed publicly accessible again, as the concrete walls give way to a grassy floodplain and natural park. Yet, the irony of the Elizabeth River passing under the nearly 20 lane wide NJ Turnpike is not lost on me, for it is very much the concrete confluence of two polluted urban rivers, just one is built specifically for the flow of vehicles, yet each uniquely disturbing in their own bleak, city crushing-way. Anyway, I'll end my incoherent ramblings and leave you instead with a series of images I've captured while aimlessly drifting around E-Town. New Jersey's fourth-place city... don't forget it!

A look at the Elizabeth "skyline", which sans the 17 story Union County Courthouse Tower Building (not pictured), is dominated by 1930s era and earlier mid-rise buildings and gothic church steeples.

Standing atop a parking garage provides an interesting view of the Union County Courthouse Tower, which is the tallest building in Elizabeth and the only "skyscraper" in the city, standing at 17 stories or 238 feet tall. This beautiful Neoclassical building was also constructed during the 1930s and is largely regarded as the centerpiece of Mid-Town Elizabeth's 1930s collection of "skyscrapers".

Like most mid-sized American cities, Elizabeth is no exception to being brutalized by parking garages and asphalt parking lots. While I always take it upon myself to ascend the stairs to the top of a parking garage deck to take in the views, there is no doubt that the amount of reduced priced covered housing we provide in the United States for automobiles versus for humans is staggering. In America, you're free to park your car in the center of downtown for a few bucks an hour, but good luck obtaining a fair living rent.

In the distance behind the Courthouse Tower can be seen smokestacks originating from the massive Bayway Oil Refinery complex in nearby Linden, New Jersey; an equally fascinating city that I will maybe one day also post a write-up about.

The massive Manhattan, NY Skyline pokes above the horizon on this grey day, with the pretty 1930s era skyline of Elizabeth in plain view.

A look inside one of the many empty parking garages in Elizabeth that wastes space which could otherwise be utilize by humans.

The backside of the historic Ritz Theatre & Performing Arts Center. A awesome art deco theater constructed in 1926 with a sitting capacity of 2,800 people which is still regularly used for performances to this day. Of course however, the beautiful brick and art deco theater is flanked by an ugly concrete parking garage, because god bless our American right not to have to walk more than a block.

A look at the completely off-limits and channelized Elizabeth River as it cuts through Mid-Town. As you can see, the entire "riverbed" is surrounded on both sides by bleak concrete walls which are topped with a spiked iron fence, making the otherwise natural river feel more like an intruder within its own city.

A peak underneath the New Jersey Turnpike as it slices and dices its way through the Elizabethport neighborhood. Beneath the rising concrete pillars which elevate the Turnpike above the Elizabeth River exists a true No Man's Land, a place so barren, bleak and devoid of life not even a common weed dare grows through the cracks in the concrete. A place where the dead soil below is so arid and dusty one might mistake themselves for walking on the surface of the Moon. Occasionally bits of graffiti bring some color to the otherwise dreadful space, but generally not for long, as the buff-oon will soon arrive to paint the colors back to grey.

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