Chapter 783. To authorize the Alexandria and Pineville Bridge Company to build and maintain a traffic bridge across Red River at the town of Alexandria, in the parish of Rapides, State of Louisiana
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CHAP. 783.— An Act To authorize the Alexandria and Pineville Bridge Company to build and maintain a traffic bridge across Red River at the town of Alexandria, in the parish of Rapides, State of Louisiana. June 6, 1900. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*, Alexandria and Pineville Bridge Company may bridge Red River at Alexandria, La. That the Alexandria and Pineville Bridge Company, a corporation duly incorporated and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the State of Louisiana, be, and is hereby, authorized to construct and maintain a traffic bridge across Red River at a point suitable to the interest of navigation, within the corporate limits of the town of Alexandria, in the parish of Rapides, Transit.State of Louisiana.
Said bridge shall be constructed to provide for the passage of vehicles, street-railway cars, foot passengers, stock, and Toll.such other traffic as may be desired, at such legal rates of toll as may be fixed by said company, and approved by the Secretary of War. Sec. 2. To be lawful structure and post route.That said bridge built under this Act, and subject to its limitations, shall be a lawful structure, and shall be recognized and known as a post route, upon which also 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 paid for the trans-mission over the public highways leading to the said bridge, and shall enjoy the rights and privileges of other post roads in the United Telegraph, etc., companies.States: and equal privileges in the use of said bridge shall be granted to all telegraph and telephone companies; and the United States shall have the right of way across said bridge and its approaches for postal-telegraph *Proviso.*Aids to navigation.purposes: *Provided,* That the bridge herein authorized to be constructed shall be so kept and managed by the company owning or operating it as to afford proper ways and means for the passage through or under it of vessels, barges, or rafts at all times, both by 277day and by night; and if said bridge be constructed as a drawbridge,Draw the draw shall be opened promptly upon reasonable signal for the pas-sage of boats; and upon whatever kind of bridge is built there shallLights. be displayed from sunset to sunrise, at the expense of said company, such lights and signals as the Light-House Board shall prescribe.
Sec. 3. That if said bridge, erected and maintained under the authorityChanges. of this Act. shall at any time substantially or materially obstruct the free navigation of said river, or shall, in the opinion of the Secretary of War, obstruct such navigation, he is hereby authorized to cause such change or alteration of said bridge to be made as will effectually obviate such obstruction: and such alteration shall be made and all such obstructions be removed at the expense of the owners or operators of said bridge; and in case of any litigation arising fromLitigation the obstruction or alleged obstruction to the free navigation of said river, the case may be brought in the district court of the United States for the western district of Louisiana: *Provided,* That nothing*Proviso.*Existing law unaffected. in this Act shall be so construed as to repeal or modify any of the pro-visions of law now existing in reference to the protection of the navigation of rivers, or to exempt said bridge from the operation of same.
Sec. 4. That the bridge authorized to be constructed under thisSecretary of War to approve plans. Act 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 to secure that object the said company or corporation shall submit to the Secretary of War. for his examination and approval, a design and drawing of said bridge, and a map of the location, prepared with reference to known datum plane upon prescribed scales furnished by the engineer officer having supervision of said river, and giving, for the space of two miles above and two miles below the proposed location of the bridge, the topography of the banks of the river, with shore lines at high and low water, the direction and strength of the currents at all 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 said plans and location of the bridge are approved by the Secretary of war the bridge shall not be built: and should any change be made in the plan of the said bridge during the process of construction, or after completion, such change shall be subject to the approval of the Secretary of War. Sec. 5. That this Act shall be null and void if actual constructionCommencement and completion. of the bridge herein authorized be not commenced within one year and completed within three years from the date of the approval hereof.
Sec. 6. That the right to alter, amend, or repeal this Act is herebyAmendment. expressly reserved. Approved, June 6, 1900.