Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Glen Ridge, NJ

Glen Ridge is a small borough in Essex County, New Jersey, taking its name from the ridge formed by Toney's Brook, whose waters flow through the borough park known as The Glen.

The borough's land traces to the 1666 purchase of 'New Ark' (Newark) from the Lenni Lenape by 64 Connecticut families led by Robert Treat.

For most of the 19th century, three water-powered mills along Toney's Brook produced lumber, calico, pasteboard boxes and brass fittings, while a copper mine and a sandstone quarry operated on the brook's north side.

Glen Ridge was incorporated as a borough on February 13, 1895, from portions of Bloomfield Township, after a secession referendum held the previous day passed by just 23 votes.

In 1924 Glen Ridge became the first municipality in New Jersey to establish a zoning ordinance.

Glen Ridge is one of the few places in New Jersey that still lights its streets with gas lamps, a signature feature adopted after incorporation and later expanded with lamps salvaged and repaired around the World War II era.

Utility poles for electric lines are not permitted along Glen Ridge's gas-lit streets, with wires routed behind homes instead, and the borough makes extensive use of slate sidewalks.

Mountainside Hospital — today HackensackUMC Mountainside — was founded in 1891, and the Glen Ridge Country Club, founded in 1894, is one of the oldest golf clubs in New Jersey.

The borough is only about two miles long and at most six blocks wide, narrowing to just two or three blocks in 'the Panhandle' north of Bay Avenue.

The 2020 census counted 7,802 residents in Glen Ridge, living in 2,529 households — an unusually family-heavy community, with 52.3% of households including children under 18.