April 15, 1835 - An Act to Incorporate the Yardleyville Delaware Bridge Company, resulted in construction of the original wooden covered "wagon bridge" - may somehow be tied-to later events regarding the railroad bridge.

1853 - By this date North Penn Railroad had surveyed a route between Doylestown and New Jersey

Spring 1867 - "Henry Martyn Hamilton (1831-1907), an impecunious entrepreneur of Montclair, NJ, begins plan to secure a charter for a competing railroad between New York and Philadelphia by stealth, piecing together short-line charters end to end." [Quotation is from Pennsylvania Railroad Corporate History] The first two sections chartered in New Jersey were 1) Hamilton Land Improvement Company, and 2) Millstone and Trenton Railroad

1868 - A National Railway was first proposed between NYC and Washington, D.C. "Later proposals concentrated on the New York-Philadelphia section, and were made both at the federal level and in the states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey." The new railway would provide competition for the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) .

January 22, 1870 - New York Times Article titled "New-Jersey Railroad Matters - New Roads Proposed." - "It is said that Flemington and Delaware Railroad Co. will be chartered this winter... Authority will soon be asked to build a through line between Bound Brook and Philadelphia." The news account refers to old charters between Yardleyville and Philadelphia.

May 24, 1871 - "Excelsior Enterprise Company" is created by Act of the Legislature, including right to change name. Algernon S. Cadwallader was president and Charles S. Clark secretary. Original stockholders were Charles S. Clark, A.C. Maury, William R. Smith, A. S. Cadwallader, William Bell, H.M. Hamilton, F.D. Lewis, Jacob Riegel, Robert R. Corson, John P. Verree.

1872 - "Re-survey by North Penn failed to result in construction of line between Doylestown and New Jersey; this plan was abandoned in favor of a plan to cross Delaware at Yardleyville"

1872 - A suit is filed by N.J. Attorney General to restrain the Delaware & Bound Brook Railroad Co from building a bridge at Yardleyville. Project was being undertaken in conjunction with the North Penn Railroad Co. The word Delaware refers to the Delaware River.

January 1873 - authorized to change their name

January 11, 1873 - Stockholders authorize increase in Capital Stock of Excelsior Enterprise Company, now called "The National Company"

January 13, 1873 - "Articles of Association Philadelphia and Yardleyville Railroad Company... said railroad is to be constructed or maintained and operated from a point on the Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad..."

187_ - Date printed on stock certificates of Philadelphia & Yardleyville Rail Road. Shares are known to have been issued in 1873.

March 31, 1873 - Date that name change "Excelsior Enterprise Company" to "The National Company" was filed with Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

April 17, 1873 - List of Incorporators

June 2, 1873 - Mortgage and Bond between the Philadelphia and Yardleyville Railroad Company and Fidelity Insurance, Trust and Safe Deposit Company of Philadelphia

May 12, 1874 - "The Delaware and Bound Brook Railroad was incorporated in New Jersey to build a railroad from the Delaware River to the Central Railroad of New Jersey at Bound Brook."

May 14, 1874 - "The North Pennsylvania Railroad approved the construction of the Delaware River Branch" Construction of line from Jenkintown to Yardleyville began that same year.

1875 - Yardleyville Connecting Railroad Co. agreement is filed in N.J. Archives

1876 - Phila to Bound Brook line opened two months before opening of Phila Centennial

March 14, 1879 - Philadelphia Bound Brook Line is leased by Philadelphia & Reading Railroad (agreement is filed in N.J. Archives). The line included the Delaware and Bound Brook Railroad and the Delaware River Branch of the North Pennsylvania Railroad

1883 - Bridge strengthened and timber trestle between river and canal was probably constructed at the same time. The right to use existing tracks of Central Jersey Railroad was acquired, thereby connecting the final link from Bound Brook to Hudson Ferry Terminals

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