In 1829, eager to reduce the cost and difficulty of travel, New Jersey began investigating a cross-state canal and railroads.

Each corporation was to give the state $100,000 worth of stock and pay a transit tax levied on cargo and each passenger carried.

Both ventures were considered risky, and both needed right-of-way grants from the legislature along the river's banks, requiring negotiations and design compromises before either could lay claim to a land rights charter.

From the other direction, the original C&A ran south from New York Harbor via South Amboy on Raritan Bay to Camden, thence across the breadth of New Jersey, connecting by ferry across the Delaware River to Philadelphia, both indirectly and more rapidly linking New York City and Philadelphia, the two largest American cities and industrial centers at the times.

[2] R. Stephenson and Company built a locomotive steam engine for the Camden and Amboy that was completed in July 1831 and shipped to Philadelphia from Liverpool on the 14th of the same month.

It was received by "Edwin A. Stephens for the Camden and South Amboy R. Road & Trans Co." The locomotive engine was named John Bull in reference to its place of manufacture.

The first section, from Stewarts Point Wharf near Bordentown north to Hightstown, was opened to the public on October 1, 1832, being operated by horse at first.

[2] Service between Philadelphia and Stewarts Point Wharf was provided by steamboats, and a stagecoach trip was used between Hightstown and South Amboy.

[2] On March 7, 1832, the New Jersey Rail Road and Transportation Company (NJRR) was chartered as a parallel line to the C&A, beginning at Jersey City, closer to New York City, but was limited to building south to New Brunswick due to the C&A's influence; the C&A would build the part from New Brunswick south to Spotswood (changed to Trenton in 1836 due to the alliance with the Philadelphia and Trenton Railroad).

In November 1832, the NJRR acquired control of the Essex and Middlesex Turnpike, which paralleled the planned alignment east of Newark, to avoid problems caused by competition.

Around 1852, the NJRR acquired the Newark Plank Road and Ferry Company (incorporated 1849) to keep the Passaic and Hackensack monopoly.

Regular NJRR service began September 15, 1834, between Newark and Jersey City, using a temporary track over Bergen Hill.

On September 8, 1836, the NJRR acquired a majority of stock of the New Brunswick Bridge Company to avoid its local monopoly over crossings of the Raritan River.

The double-deck bridge over the Raritan opened October 31, 1837, with a road beneath the railroad, taking the NJRR to New Brunswick.

The branch continued northeast from Trenton on the east bank of the canal, splitting at Kingston and running cross-country to Millstone Junction, southwest of New Brunswick.

Despite forming one third of the route, the NJRR only got one sixth of the earnings from the joint operation, which ran between Philadelphia and New York City in 5.5 hours.

This allowed for through Philadelphia–Jersey City operation, but most traffic continued to run via Camden due to the distance between the P&T's Kensington terminal and central Philadelphia.

The first train ran through the new tunnel on October 5, 1863, and the new line (along what is now the Northeast Corridor) opened November 23, cutting New York City–Trenton time to 2.5 hours.

The Princeton–Kingston section was removed in September when freight operations began on the Princeton Branch; track north of Kingston (which was not next to the canal) was retained to serve the Rocky Hill Railroad.

The P&HR agreed in June 1833 to build to the west side of the New Jersey Palisades at Marion Junction, where it would use the NJRR's Bergen Hill Cut the rest of the way to the Hudson River.

The Long Dock Tunnel opened April 15, 1861, giving the P&HR (by then part of the Erie) its own route to the Hudson River.

An act passed February 4, 1831, gave the C&A monopoly powers for nine years against railroads built within three miles of the C&A, in exchange for the state receiving 1000 shares of stock.

The Protection Act, passed March 2, 1832, expanded this to give the Joint Companies a monopoly on New York City-Philadelphia traffic across New Jersey.

On October 12 the C&A/D&R Joint Board authorized a purchase of the P&T, and an agreement was signed November 11, by which the P&T would send all traffic beyond Trenton to New York City via the C&A.

A series of events including inflation, poor management, abnormally harsh weather conditions and the withdrawal of a government-guaranteed 200-million-dollar operating loan forced the Penn Central to file for bankruptcy protection in 1970.