Linden: Refinery City on the Arthur Kill

Linden, New Jersey, takes its name from linden trees said to have been brought from Germany. The township organized in eighteen sixty-one, carved from Elizabeth. For generations it was farmland, but when Standard Oil of New Jersey opened a massive refinery complex along the Arthur Kill waterway in the early nineteen hundreds, Linden transformed almost overnight into an industrial city.

By mid-century it was home to a General Motors assembly plant, chemical manufacturers, and one of the busiest fuel port corridors on the Eastern Seaboard. The GM plant closed in two thousand five, a blow that reshaped the economy. Today Linden is rebuilding around logistics and distribution, and the refinery stacks along the kill remain one of the most recognizable skylines on the Jersey side of the turnpike.