Bordentown is throwing open the gates on its new Camden & Amboy Railroad Heritage Park this Saturday, November 14, with a silver spike ceremony running from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Bordentown Light Rail parking lot at the end of Park Street. The event will spotlight the city's deep railroad roots and the Camden & Amboy Railroad's outsized role in shaping New Jersey's early transportation network.
According to TAPinto, Saturday's ceremony will be hosted by Mayor Stephanie Lagos alongside Bordentown Historical Society co-presidents Bonnie Goldman and Steven Lederman and West Jersey Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society president Dave Homer. State Senator Troy Singleton and NJ Transit Chief of Government and External Affairs Paul Wyckoff are both expected to deliver remarks, and Pierre Lacombe, a Bordentown Historical Society director who also belongs to the West Jersey Chapter, will walk attendees through the new park and its historical significance. The ceremony is set to wrap with participants driving replica silver spikes into several styles of railroad track on display.
A Park Built Beside the Tracks It Honors
The heritage park sits adjacent to Bordentown's River Line parking lot, according to the West Jersey Chapter NRHS, placing visitors steps from the very corridor the Camden & Amboy once carved through the city. By January, the society had nearly finished assembling a display of seven railroad track styles built between 1831 and 1834.
Members of the Bordentown Historical Society and the chapter were working on the project, with the society receiving a $9,000 grant reported in January by CentralJersey.com to support its Camden & Amboy Railroad Project, including a self-guided walking tour of the former rail line's route featuring 15 interpretive signs and displays. At that point, the society said it had nearly finished assembling the display of seven railroad track styles built between 1831 and 1834.
Nearly Two Centuries of Rail History
Per TAPinto, the Camden & Amboy Railroad was chartered by the New Jersey Legislature in 1830 as the state's first railroad, and it went on to revolutionize freight and passenger transportation between Philadelphia and New York City. The outlet reports that trains ran on the tracks until the Pennsylvania Railroad began using the rails in 1871, followed by Conrail from 1976 to 2004, with NJ Transit's River Line and CSX operating the corridor from 2004 to the present. TAPinto also notes that the Bordentown section of the line is considered one of America's two oldest continuously used railroad rights-of-way.
That lineage is echoed by the Delaware River Heritage Trail, which notes the railroad's first 14-mile section opened between Bordentown and Hightstown in September 1832, and that the original route is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its role in transportation history. The trail's account adds that the Camden & Amboy's route from Camden to Trenton is now used by NJ Transit's River Line, tying the historic corridor directly to the modern light rail stop beside the new park.
Looking Toward a Bicentennial
The new park is meant to serve as a tribute to Bordentown's railroad legacy and a place for residents and visitors to learn about the city's transportation history, according to TAPinto's report. The outlet also notes that Bordentown City plans to commemorate the Camden & Amboy Railroad's 200th anniversary in 2031, making Saturday's opening an early marker on the road to that milestone. For now, the silver spikes and the freshly assembled track displays give the city a tangible, walkable monument to a rail line that helped define New Jersey's early transportation era.
