Chapter 244. to authorize the Southern Maryland Railroad Company to extend a railroad into and within the District of Columbia
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CHAP. 244.— An Act to authorize the Southern Maryland Railroad Company to extend a railroad into and within the District of Columbia.June 27, 1882. Whereas, It is represented to this present Congress that the SouthernSouthern Maryland Railroad Company to extend road into and within the District of Columbia.Preamble. Maryland Railroad Company, organized under the provisions of the act of the general assembly of the State of Maryland, entitled, “An act to incorporate the Sou them Maryland Railroad Company,” approved March twentieth, eighteen hundred and sixty-eight, desire to extend their railroad into and within the District of Columbia:
Therefore *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*, That the Southern Maryland Railroad Company shall be, and they are hereby authorized and empowered to extend their railroad into and within the District of Columbia, by and over the route or routes and from and to the terminal point or Description of route.points following, that is to say: Entering the said District near its northeastern angle and proceeding thence in a northwestwardly direction across the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad near Benning’s Station, on that road, and across the eastern branch of the Potomac River about one thousand feet above and north of Benning’s Bridge, and run- 115ning thence southward of Mount Olivet Cemetery across the Washington Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad near the southern angle of the National Fair Grounds, and thence across the old Bladensburg road at the head of the National Fair Grounds Valley, and thence to a junction with the Metropolitan Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at or near the two mile post on said metropolitan Branch of said railroad, which said point of junction shall be the northern terminus of said Southern Maryland Railroad.
And the said Southern Maryland Railroad Company are hereby authorized to exercise the same powers,Powers, rights, and privileges. rights, and privileges, and are subject to the same restrictions, in the extension and construction of their said railroad into and within the said District, as may be now exercised by railroad companies organized under the general laws in force for the incorporation of railroad companies in the District of Columbia, it being expressly understood that the Southern Maryland Railroad Company shall have power to construct a railroad within the said District only along the routes and from and to the terminal points hereinbefore indicated.
Sec. 2.— That nothing herein contained shall be so construed as toCemeteries, the Soldiers’ Home, or any property of the United States to be exempt. authorize the said company to enter upon and take any cemetery, or any part of the property known as the So’diers’ Home, or any lot or square, or part thereof, owned by the United States, tor the purpose of locating or constructing said railroad, or for the purpose of excavating the same or taking therefrom any materials, or for any other purposes or uses whatsoever; and the said Southern Maryland Railroad may connectRailroad connections. within said District with any railroad or canal company chartered or hereafter to be chartered, by such route or routes within said District as have been or as may be hereafter determined by Congress, and upon such terms as may be agreed upon by the said companies respectively.
In crossing the track of any other railroad, said Southern Maryland Railroad Company shall construct its road either above or below the grade ofGrade in crossing other roads. said road. Sec. 3.— That the said Southern Maryland Railroad Company mayTolls, etc., for freights. charge and receive for tolls and transportation of freights on the part of said railroad within the District of Columbia the same rates that it shall charge and receive therefor on the part of said road without the said District, and the same rate of passenger fare may be established for distances along said road within the said,District as shall be established for like distances along said road without said District.
That Congress reserves the right to regulate the rates of passengers and freights on said railroad. Sec. 4.— That unless the said company shall commence the constructionTo commence work in one year, and complete road in two years from passage of act. of said railroad within one year, and shall complete the same, with at least one set of tracks, within two years from the passage of this act, then this act and all rights and privileges hereby granted shall cease and determine. Approved, June 27, 1882.