[5] Opened on July 23, 1869, the line was routed between terminals at Newark and Jersey City, where passengers could transfer to ferries to New York.

[7] By 1913 the rail line, including the bridges across the rivers, was raised about 30 feet (9.1 m) to avoid conflicts with maritime traffic in the newly developing port[8] The draw span of the PD Draw over the Passaic had been relocated 185 feet (56 m) upstream to create another bridge on a new alignment in 1912.

[13] On February 3, 1946, SS Jagger Seam, a collier, crashed into the drawbridge, shearing off two of the bridge's spans.

[14] Initial estimates indicated that rail service over the Hackensack would be delayed for three months,[15] with the CNJ projecting that it would take that long to procure enough steel to reconstruct the bridge.

[3] Similarly, service east of the drawbridge continued to run between the West Side Avenue station and Communipaw Terminal.