Chapter 212. Granting the right and authority to the Pensacola and Northwestern Railroad Company to build bridges over certain rivers in the State of Alabama
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CHAP. 212.— An Act Granting the right and authority to the Pensacola and Northwestern Railroad Company to build bridges over certain rivers in the State of Alabama. February 27, 1899. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, * That the Pensacola and NorthwesternPensacola and Northwestern Railroad may bridge Alabama, etc., rivers, Alabama. Railroad Company, a railroad corporation organized under the laws of the States of Florida and Alabama, be, and is hereby, authorized and empowered to construct, maintain, and operate one bridge across each of the following-named rivers, all in the State of Alabama:
The Alabama River, at a point in Monroe and Clarke counties, or in Wilcox County, Alabama; the Warrior River, at a point in Hale and Greene counties, Alabama, or at a point in Marengo and Greene counties, Alabama; the Tennessee River, at a point in the counties of Colbert and Lauderdale, Alabama; the Sipsey River, at a point in Pickens or Tuscaloosa County, Alabama; and to lay railroad tracks on the saidRailroad tracks. bridges to run trains on same. Sec. 2. That any bridges built under this Act and subject to its limitationsTo be lawful structures and post routes. shall be lawful structures, and shall be recognized and known as post routes; and they shall enjoy the same rights and privileges as other post-roads in the United States; and equal privileges in the useTelegraph, etc., companies. of said bridges shall be granted to all telegraph and telephone companies ; and the United States shall have the right of way across said bridges and their approaches for postal telegraph purposes.
Sec. 3. That all railroad companies desiring the use of said bridgesRight of railroads to use. shall have and be entitled to equal rights and privileges relative to the passage of railway trains over the same and over the approaches thereto, upon the payment of a reasonable compensation for such use; and in—disagreement with owner of bridge. case the owner or owners of said bridges and the several railroad companies, or any 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 bridges, 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. 4. That all bridges authorized to be constructed under this ActSecretary of War to approve plans, etc. shall be built under and subject to such regulations for the security of the navigation of said rivers as the Secretary of War shall prescribe, and to secure that object the said company or corporation shall submit to the Secretary of War, for his examination and approval, maps of 906 FIFTY-FIFTH CONGRESS. Sess. III. Chs. 212, 218, 219. 1899. location and designs and drawings of each of the bridges; and until the said plans and locations are approved by the Secretary of War the —changes.bridges shall not be commenced or built; and should any changes be made in the plans of said bridges, or any one of them, during the progress of construction or after completion, such changes shall be subject to the approval of the Secretary of War, and all changes in said bridges, or any one of them, required by the Secretary of War, at any time, or their entire removal, shall be made promptly by the corporations or persons owning or operating said bridges, at their own expense.
Sec. 5. Amendment. That the right to alter, amend, or repeal this Act is hereby expressly reserved. Sec. 6. Commencement and completion. That this Act shall be null and void if actual construction of the bridges herein authorized is not commenced within one year and completed within three years from the date thereof. Approved, February 27, 1899.