Beat me to it! I grew up 150 feet away from the Hudson River, and I remember learning when I was about seven that calling it a “river” is technically a misnomer.
I’d heard that the Chicago River flows both into Lake Michigan and into some tributary of the Mississippi (I can’t find an online map that accurately labels rivers), but it’s the result of engineering and not a natural phenomenon. How does this work? Does a second river flow right into where they divide the Chicago or something?
The Chicago River wasn’t split; it was fully reversed. Originally it and the nearby Calumet River drained into Lake Michigan, but now they flow out of Lake Michigan. They would eventually drain Lake Michigan via the Mississippi, if there weren’t locks in place (and if they didn’t silt up first.) See the Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal for a couple of maps illustrating what was done.
Maybe you should check that again. We have two continental divides in the US, eastern and western. At Parting of the Waters in Wyoming one part flows to the Pacific, the other flows to the Gulf of Mexico.
Edit to add: The Wikipedia says that it flows to the Atlantic and the creek is called Atlantic Creek, but it seems lazy to say that the Mississippi flows into the Atlantic instead of the Gulf of Mexico.
Also wanted to point out that Wiki says that Rahway is at 23 ft elevation. Presumably the Rahway River is somewhat below this median elevation so it is not too hard to imagine that the rising tides could affect the river as far inland as Rahway.
Well, drain is a bit strong. The canal would have to be a lot deeper to completely drain Lake Michigan (920+ feet deep at its deepest point).
The Arthur Kill is a tidal strait separating Staten Island, New York City from mainland New Jersey, USA, and a major navigational channel of the Port of New York and New Jersey. Arthur Kill has also been known as Staten Island Sound.
Not that it is relevant to that particular river, but the Detroit River in Detroit can flow either way, sort of. The river has such a slow flow because the elevation change is so gradual, that the name (in French) means that they weren’t quite sure if it was a river or a strait. On a day with a decent northeast blowing wind the surface flow appears to be upstream. The balance of the flow underneath is still into Erie, but a leaf, or foam, or shallow draft boat will go the other way on those days.