Chapter 184. authorizing the Saint Louis and Madison Transfer Company to construct a bridge over the Mississippi River
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CHAP. 184.— An Act authorizing the Saint Louis and Madison Transfer Company to construct a bridge over the Mississippi River.March 1, 1893. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*, That the consent of CongressSaint Louis and Madison Transfer Company may bridge Mississippi River at Saint Louis, Mo. is hereby given to the Saint Louis and Madison Bridge Transfer company, a corporation created by the laws of the State of Illinois, or its successors or assigns, to build a bridge, as hereinafter described, and maintain the same across the Mississippi River immediately adjoining and south of the Merchants’ Bridge, at Saint Louis, Missouri, Said 512 bridge hereby authorized shall be constructed to provide for the Street car, wagon, and passenger bridge.passage of street cars, wagons, and vehicles, and for the transit of animals and foot passengers, for such reasonable rates of toll as may be prescribed by said company and approved by the Secretary of War.
Sec. 2. Lawful structure and post route. That any bridge built under this act shall be a lawful structure, over which and its approaches may be transmitted the mails, the troops, and the munitions of war of the United States free of charge; Postal telegraph.and the United States shall have the right of way for postal telegraph purposes across said bridge; and said bridge shall enjoy the privileges of other post roads in the United States, and equal privileges in the Use by telegraph, etc., companies.*Proviso*.Use by other street railway companies.use of said bridge shall be granted to all telegraph and telephone companies: *Provided*, That all street railway companies desiring the use of said bridge shall have and be entitled to equal rights and privileges relative to the passage of street-railway cars over the same and over the approaches to the same upon the payment of a reasonable Terms.compensation for such use, and in case the owner or owners of said bridge and the several street-railway companies, or any one of them, desiring such use shall fail to agree upon the sum or sums to be paid, and upon the rules and conditions to which each shall conform in using said bridge all matters at issue between them shall be decided by the Secretary of War upon a hearing of the allegations and proofs of the parties.
Sec. 3. Construction.Spans.Vol. 24, p. 375. That said bridge shall be made of unbroken and continuous spans of the same length as those of the Saint Louis Merchant’s Bridge, built under the act approved February third, eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, with the same clear height above the water, and Piers.resting upon piers placed in the same lines as those of the said Merchants’ Bridge as now built. Sec. 4. Unobstructed navigation. That riprapping or other protection for imperfect foundations which will materially lessen the waterway shall not be employed in the channel ways of the high spans, and piers which will produce cross currents or bars dangerous to navigation shall not be constructed; and if, after construction, any piers or protection walls are found to produce the above-mentioned effects the nuisance shall be abated or corrected by the owners of said bridge.
Sec. 5. Aids to navigation. That in case the approaches to the channel span in said bridge, be found dangerous or difficult of access by any important class of river traffic, the Secretary of War shall order the construction of such sheer booms, guide piers, or other similar devices as will obviate the difficulty, which sheer boom, guide pier, or other devise shall be paid for by the person owning or operating said bridge. Sec. 6. Lights, etc. That the persons owing, controlling, or operating the bridge authorized by this act shall maintain, at their own expense, from sunset to sunrise, throughout the year and during heavy fogs, such lights or other signals as the Light-House Board shall prescribe, and shall, during the season of navigation, have posted in a conspicuous place on or near the bridge the clear bead room under the channel span on that day, the figure expressing this height to be not less than two feet high, and to be readily visible from any point in the channel of the river for a stretch of three thousand feet above the bridge and one thousand feet below the bridge.
Sec. 7. Free navigation. That no bridge shall be erected or maintained under authority of this act which shall at any time substantially or materially obstruct the free navigation of said river, and if any bridge erected under such authority shall, in the opinion of the Secretary of War, obstruct Structural changes.such navigation, he is hereby authorized to cause such change or alteration of such bridge to be made as will effectually obviate such obstruction: and all such alterations shall be made and all such obstructions be removed at the expense of the persons owning or controlling said Litigation.bridge; and in case of any litigation arising from any obstruction or alleged obstruction to the free navigation of said river, caused or alleged to be caused by said bridge, the ease may be brought in the 513 circuit courts of the United States of Illinois or Missouri in whose jurisdiction any portion of said bridge may be located.
Sec. 8. That any bridge authorized to be constructed under this actSecretary of War to approve plans, etc. shall be built and located under and subject to such regulations for the security of navigation of said river as the Secretary of War shall prescribe; and the said company or corporation shall submit to the Secretary of War, for his examination and approval, a design and drawings of the bridge and a map of the location, giving, for the space of one mile above and one mile below the proposed location of the bridge, the topography of the banks of the river, the shore lines at high and low water, the direction and strength of the current at low, medium, and high-water stages, and the soundings, accurately showing the bed of the stream, the location of any other bridge or bridges, and shall furnish such other information as may be required for a full and satisfactory understanding of the subject; and until the said plan and location of the bridge are approved by the Secretary of War the bridge shall not be built; and should any changes be made in the plan of saidChanges. bridge during the progress of construction such changes shall be subject to the approval of the Secretary of War.
Sec. 9. That in case the construction of the bridge authorized in thisCommencement and completion. act be not commenced within one year and completed within three years from the date of its approval then this act shall be null and void Sec. 10. That the right to alter, amend, or repeal this act is herebyAmendment, etc.*Proviso*.Limit of location. expressly reserved. And it is further provided that no bridges shall be constructed across the Mississippi River within two miles above or two miles below the bridge herein provided for, unless authorized by Congress, and the plans therefor approved by the Secretary of War.
Approved, March 1, 1893.