It is located 23 miles (37 km) northeast of Center City in Philadelphia opposite Burlington, New Jersey, on the Delaware River.
Samuel Clift founded the Borough of Bristol, having received a land grant from Edmund Andros, who was then governor of New York.
Clift was required by the grant to maintain ferry service across the Delaware River to Burlington, New Jersey, and to run a public house or inn.
A petition was submitted by Joseph Bond, Anthony Burton, John Hall and William Wharton to the Council for incorporation, and was granted in 1702.
With the building of the 60 miles (96.6 km) long, forty feet wide, and five feet deep[9] Delaware Canal, it became a transshipment gateway[notes 1] connecting the anthracite barges floating down the Lehigh Canal's end terminal at Easton to Philadelphia.
Developed by John Fitch, Bristol was the home of the first steamboat ferry service taking up to 30 passengers bound for Philadelphia and other ports on the Delaware[notes 2][6] In 1740, William Davis established a shipyard in Bristol, building small vessels such as schooners and sloops.
[6] The expense of digging the canal was justifiable as the banks of the Delaware southerly from Easton were less suitable, there was insufficient real estate for extensive additional docks, so the legislature figured the Delaware Canal avoided the need to transship barge loads of coal to boats, drastically saving costs and time.
[notes 3] Consequently, later, the Pennsylvania Railroad would also connect to the anthracite flowing through the canals, to the riverine barge and boat traffic, and to provide rail depots servicing the manufacturies.
[8] By the 1880s, Bristol Borough was home to many factories, including companies manufacturing wall paper and carpet.
[8][10] In 1917 Averell Harriman organized the Bristol Borough shipyards founding the Merchant Shipbuilding Corporation (later called Merchant-Sterling)[10] and given the U-boat menace, would land a contract to build 40 identical cargo ships for the war.
[10] The residential area that developed around the shipyards was soon named Harriman, Pennsylvania, and most of the housing built therein is still in use today.
[10] Most of the shipping was finished too late to enter World War I, but some of the shipyard's output was used post-war in relief and troop support missions.
[10] The majority of the contracts were canceled in 1919,[10] and the ship yards rapidly became excess real estate.
[10] Between the two world wars, the eighty-acres of the shipyard were let out to various concerns, including one area[10] converted to building amphibious planes—the flying boats technology which was the heart and soul of long distance air travel until the technological advances theretofore the middle years of World War II.
The song remains a local favorite, and it is often played at ceremonies, parades, and sporting events.
Given its riverfront location, the old shipbuilding site was ranked highest in priority,[10] and on 20 October 2000 various legislators and officials held a press conference at the former shipyard heralding the construction of the residential development already under way, known as the 'Riverfront North Project',[10] and publicizing how derelict portions of the slipways were being removed.
The Delaware Division of the Pennsylvania Canal is also designated as a National Historic Landmark District.
Ice storms and large snowstorms depositing ≥ 12 inches (30 cm) occur once every few years, particularly during nor’easters from December through February.
Pennsylvania Route 413 passes north-south along the western edge of Bristol, heading north on Veterans Highway toward Langhorne and south to the Burlington-Bristol Bridge over the Delaware River that leads to Burlington, New Jersey.