Voda nepresušive Rječine prvo je na svojim obalama pokretala niz mlinova koji su mljeli žito. U vremenu čelika i vatre, točnije 1873. godine u grad dolazi željeznica čiji nasip razgraničava centar grada od njegove prve industrijske zone. S vrha pružnog nasipa nekadašnji promatrač, pogledom prema sjeveru, mogao je svjedočiti šumi vitkih industrijskih dimnjaka omeđenih strmim i dramatičnim kanjonom posred kojeg teče Rječina.

Desnu stranu Rječine prati Vodovodna ulica. Prije ovog imala je još dva naziva: Via dei Molini po mlinovima koji su tu nekad postojali i Via del Macello po klaonici koja je tu djelovala zajedno s nizom drugih industrijskih pogona i komunalnih zdanja.

Along the banks of the never-getting-dry Rječina River, its waters first moved a series of mills that grinded grain. In times of steel and fire, more precisely in 1873, a railway comes to the city, the embankment of which defines the limits of the city centre from its first industrial zone. From the top of the railway embankment, looking once upon a time to the north the former observer could witness a forest of slender industrial chimneys bordered by a steep and dramatic canyon with the Rječina River flowing in the middle.

The Vodovodna Street follows the right Rječina River bank. Before this, the street had two more names: Via dei Molini, after the mills that once existed there and Via del Macello, after the slaughterhouse that operated there along with a number of other industrial plants and communal buildings.