Chapter 468. To authorize the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company to construct, maintain, and operate a bridge across the Choctawhatchee River at Geneva, Alabama
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CHAP. 468.— An Act To authorize the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company to construct, maintain, and operate a bridge across the Choctawhatchee River at Geneva, Alabama. February 23, 1901. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*, Louisville and Nashville Railroad may bridge Choctawhatchee River at Geneva, Ala. That the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company, a corporation created and existing under the laws of the State of Kentucky, and doing business in the State of Alabama, its successors and assigns, be. and it is hereby, authorized and empowered to construct, maintain, and operate a bridge across the Choctawhatchee River at Geneva.
Alabama, at such point as may have been or may hereafter be selected by said railroad company for crossing said river on its line of railroad, provided such point selected shall, in the judgment of the Secretary of War, be suitable to the interests of navigation; that said bridge shall be constructed for the passage ofRailroad bridge. railroad trains, and said railroad company may locate, construct, maintain, and operate over said bridge and the approaches thereto railroad tracks for the use of said railroad company.
Sec. 2. That said bridge shall be a lawful structure, subject to theLawful structure and post route. limitations of this Act, and shall be recognized and known as a post route, upon which no higher charge shall be made for the transmission over the same of the mails, the troops, and munitions of war of the United States than the rate per mile to be paid for the same over the railroad leading to said bridge: and the United States shall havePostal telegraph, etc, the right of way over said bridge for postal telegraph and telephone purposes.
Sec. 3. That the bridge authorized to be constructed under this ActSecretary of War to approve plans. shall be built and located subject to such regulations for the security of the navigation of said river as the Secretary of War shall prescribe, and to secure that object the said railroad company shall submit to the Secretary of War, for his examination and approval, a design and drawing of said bridge, with a map of the location thereof, and shall furnish such other information as may be required for the full and satisfactory understanding of the subject, and that said bridge shall not be built until the plans and location thereof shall be approved by the Secretary of War; and should any change be made in the plans ofChanges. said bridge during the progress of its construction, or after its com-803pletion, such change shall be subject to the approval of the Secretary of War: and any changes in said bridge which the Secretary of War may at any time deem necessary, and order in the interests of navigation, shall be made, by the owners thereof at their own expense: *Provided*,*Proviso*.Draw.
That if said bridge is constructed as a drawbridge the draw thereof shall be opened promptly upon reasonable signal for the passage of boats, and the said railroad company shall maintain thereon, at its own expense, between sunset and sunrise, such lights or other signals asLights. may be prescribed by the Light-House Board. Sec. 4. That all railroad companies desiring the use of the bridgeRights of railroads to use. authorized by this Act shall have and be entitled to equal rights and privileges relative to the passage of railway trains or cars over the same and over the approaches thereto upon the payment of a reasonable compensation for such use; and in case the owner or owners of said bridge and the several railroad companies, or any one of them, desiring such use shall fail to agree upon the sum or sums to be paid, and upon 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: and equal privileges in the use of said bridge shall be granted to all telegraph and telephone companies.
Sec. 5. That this Act shall be null and void if actual construction ofCommencement and completion. the said bridge be not commenced in one year and completed in three years from the date hereof. Sec. 6. That the right to alter, amend, or repeal this Act is herebyAmendment. expressly reserved. Approved, February 23, 1901.