English Quakers first settled Bordentown in 1682, and during the 18th century the community became a center of commerce with stagecoach and ferry connections to New York and Philadelphia. The Camden and Amboy Railroad began construction in 1831 and, when completed in 1838, connected Camden, Bordentown, Trenton, and South Amboy. The Bordentown junction developed busy passenger, freight, and maintenance facilities, and during the second half of the 19th century the railroad repeatedly filled the Delaware River shoreline to create land for an expanding yard and the westward relocation of the Trenton-bound track. In 1863 a wye track was installed between the South Amboy mainline and the Bordentown-to-Trenton track, allowing trains to switch between the two lines or change direction as an alternative to a turntable. Although the wye no longer exists, the bridge that carried it over Park Street, the stone retaining wall that bordered it, and a portion of its original alignment survive. During the early 1900s, siding tracks extended from the South Amboy-to-Bordentown mainline, the first section of track laid in New Jersey, and one siding ended at a 1919 Pennsylvania Railroad bumper block that remains in its original location. The junction also included a freight station erected in 1840, a car house built before 1876, and two large engine houses constructed in 1851 and 1863 for locomotive maintenance. Foundations of these structures, and possibly part of a supporting wall for a sector table used to guide rail equipment into and out of the northern engine house, were later uncovered and preserved in place. At least one passenger station stood there before 1860, and the last station, built in 1901, remained until 1965.