that the city of Fredericton actually moved its entire agricultural exhibition grounds (at great expense) from a location near the present-day York Street Railway Station to the current location of the Fredericton Exhibition in order to accommodate this railway project. Further E&NA surveys, along with significant lobbying from the city of Saint John, saw the "Western Extension" project altered to run from Saint John's west end, northwest to Harvey and then west to McAdam, thereby avoiding Fredericton by approximately . This line opened in 1869 and forced the construction of the Fredericton Branch Railway to serve the capital city. The dream of a railway bridge at Fredericton did not die with the failure of the Harvey-Fredericton-Salisbury route however. Local Fredericton industrialist Alexander Gibson pursued construction of a railway from the village of Devon where the Nashwaak River joined the Saint John River (and where Gibson had several mills), upriver to Hartland, Grand Falls and Edmundston. Surveys were commissioned in 1866 and he formed the New Brunswick Land and Railway Company in 1870. Construction from Devon to Newburg on the east bank of the river opposite Woodstock took place from 1871-1873 and from Newburg to Edmundston from 1871-1878. At the beginning of this ambitious scheme, Gibson incorporated the Fredericton & St. Mary's Bridge Co. in 1871 to construct a bridge across the Saint John River at Fredericton however the capital requirements for the NBL&RC saw the project put on hold for a decade. The 1880s brought a period of massive ownership consolidation in the New Brunswick railway industry when Gibson's NBL&RC changed its name to the New Brunswick Railway (NBR). In 1878, the NBL&RC had acquired the Aroostook Valley Railway, followed by the New Brunswick and Canada Railway in 1882, the E&NA's "Western Extension" along with the Fredericton Branch Railway in 1883. Within 5 years, the NBR controlled every railway in western New Brunswick. Gibson and his partners began construction on the Northern and Western Railway in 1884 and built the line from Devon up the Nashwaak River valley and then the Southwest Miramichi River valley to the Gulf of St. Lawrence port at Loggieville. As part of this project, Gibson again proposed to build a railway bridge over the Saint John River and in 1885, he incorporated the Fredericton and St. Mary's Railway Bridge Co. Construction began in 1887 with the laying of the first foundation stone, assisted by Prime