> ええ、道の **横を** 川が **流れている**
> んです。([context](https://www.docdroid.net/XKwQVeB/img-20170404-0003-new.pdf.html))

So, as I understand it, the sentence says that _the river flows across the
horizontal (axis?) of the street_. Is that correct? I'm really confused by
this way of expressing that A _crosses_ B. Since it feels very complicated and
unnatural to me, I'm afraid that I don't understand it correctly, even more so
because in context of the dialogue, they don't really pick up that information
further down.

This also poses a problem for me because を appears in a function I didn't
really encounter so far.

When used in context of directions, I found it as a marker for going along
something "道を行く" or inside of something "公園を散歩する", sometimes also in the
function of crossing something like 交差点を渡る。 But this feels like a mix because
its like going along the horizontal of the street.
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grammar translation
Is my interpretation of this phrase correct? ええ、道の横を川が流れているんです
In the dialogue, サントス doesn't understand what 「川沿い」 (along the river) means so
the passerby explains that 「道の横を川が流れている」 (a river runs next to the road).

In the sentence, 「を」 indicates that 「道の横」 is the object of "river running" so
it might seem weird in a word-to-word translation such as "river runs the side
of a road".
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answer
In fact, 道の横 means _along the track_. According to the dialogue you provided
you can see that when the passenger said 川沿いに行くと… Santos doesn't understand so
(s)he changes his/her words to 道の横に川が流れる (A river goes along the path)
その川に沿って行って (follow this river).

This is the 4th definition of
[横](http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/227216/meaning/m0u/):

> ４ 物のかたわら。脇。「―の席に座る」「―を見る」
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answer