Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Cranford, NJ

Cranford is a township in Union County, about 18 miles southwest of New York City, nicknamed 'The Venice of New Jersey' for its riverfront setting, with the motto 'Friendship and Progress.'

Cranford's name is said to derive from the Crane family, including John Crane, who built a mill in 1720 along the Rahway River.

Droeschers Mill, built in 1737 on the Rahway River, still stands as one of Cranford's best-known historic landmarks.

Cranford was incorporated as a township on March 14, 1871, from portions of Clark, Linden, Springfield, Union and Westfield townships; parts of Cranford were later taken to form Garwood in 1903 and Kenilworth in 1907.

The 2020 United States census counted 23,847 people in Cranford, and the 2010 census had counted 22,625 people living in 8,583 households.

The main campus of Union College, Union County's community college, is located in Cranford; the college was founded in 1933 in Roselle, moved to Cranford in 1942, and its 50-acre Cranford campus was established in 1959.

Cranford High School enrolls about 1,095 students in grades 9 through 12.

Nomahegan Park, a Union County park on Springfield Avenue across from Union College, is named for Nomahegan Brook, the Rahway River tributary that runs through it.

The Rahway River Parkway that winds through Cranford was designed in the 1920s by the Olmsted Brothers landscape firm, sons of Frederick Law Olmsted.

The Cranford Canoe Club, built in 1908, still rents canoes and kayaks for trips on the Rahway River, and paddlers race past it during the township's annual Fourth of July competition.