Chapter 354.
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/statutes-at-large/vol-24/chapter-354-279319·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
CHAP. 354.— An act granting to the Gainesville and Chickasaw Bridge Company the consent of the United States to construct and maintain a bridge over Red River at or near Brown’s Ferry, in Cooke County, Texas.May 17, 1886. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*,Gainesville and Chickasaw Bridge Company authorized to build a wagon and footbridge over the Red River at Brown’s Ferry, Tex. Tolls. That to the Gainesville and Chickasaw Bridge Company, a corporation created under the laws of Texas by charter filed January twenty-fourth, eighteen hundred and eighty-five, is granted the consent of the Government to construct and maintain for ninety years a bridge, and approaches thereto, over Red River, at or within three miles of Brown’s Ferry, in Cooke County, Texas, to be used for the passage of foot-passengers, animals, and vehicles of all kinds, for reasonable rates of toll, to be approved from time to time by the Secretary of War.
Sec. 2. That the right herein granted shall be void unless said bridgeTo be built within four years. To be a lawful structure and post-route. is constructed within four years from the passage of this act. Sec. 3. That the bridge constructed under this act shall be a lawful structure, and shall be known and recognized as a post-route; and the same is hereby declared to be a post-route upon which also no higher charge shall be made for the transmission over the same of the mails, the troops, and the munitions of war of the United States than other persons pay for like transportation; and the United States shall have the right of way for a postal telegraph across said bridge: *Provided*, *Provisos*.That before this act shall take effect said company shall submit toPlans, etc., to be approved by Secretary of War. the Secretary of War the plans and specifications of said bridge, showing the proposed location and structure contemplated, and that it shall be decided by the Secretary that said bridge does not and will not ob- 64 struct or impair the navigation of said Red River: *Provided further*, Right to amend, etc., reserved.
Free navigation not to be obstructed.That Congress reserves the right to alter, amend, or repeal this act at any time; and that if at any time navigation of the said river shall in any manner be obstructed or impaired by the said bridge, the Secretary of War shall have authority, and it shall be his duty, to require the said company to alter and change the said bridge, at its own expense, in such manner as may be proper to secure free and complete navigation without impediment; and if upon reasonable notice to said company to make such change or improvements the said company fails to do so, the Secretary of War shall have authority to make the same at the expense of said company, and all rights conferred by this act shall be forfeited; and Congress shall have power to do any and all things necessary to secure the free navigation of the river.
Approved, May 17, 1886.