Instead of the present bridges being abandoned, more will be constructed. The changed condition of the country, produced by the building of railroads, has caused the great inland waters to be spanned by bridges. These bridges are to a certain extent impediments in the way of navigation, but railways are highways of commerce as well as rivers, and would fail of accomplishing one of the main objects for which they were created the rapid transit of persons and property-if rivers could not be bridged. It is the interest as well as the duty of all persons engaged in business on the water-routes of transportation to conform to this necessity of commerce. If they do this, and recognize railroad bridges as an accomplised fact in the history of the country, there would be less loss of life and property and fewer complaints of the difficulties of navigation at the places where these bridges are built. If they pursue a different and contrary course, it rests with the courts of the country, in every proper case, to remind them of their legal responsibility. DECREE AFFIRMED. These decisions in the cases of the Lady Pike and the Mollie Mohler show how very important it is that Congress should pass laws in regard to bridges that will afford ample protection to navigation. Here is a bridge over a navigable stream, begun, without any authority of the laws of Congress, before 1866, and left in an unfinished state until 1870, with piers unreasonably close together, partly submerged at high water, oblique to the current, altogether making it "rashness to pass" such "a place of danger" in pursuit of the regular business of navigation at times when the other parts of the river were easily navigable to the best advantage. There seems every reason to believe that the bridge company was liable to damages, but under the rulings of the Supreme Court such redress is doubtful, and the steamboat-man is little able to carry on a suit against a bridge company, often backed up by a great railroad interest. MEMORANDA UPON THE BRIDGES ON THE OHIO RIVER SUBSEQUENT TO THE WHEELING BRIDGE CASE. The act of Congress making appropriations for rivers and harbors, approved July 11, 1870, provided in section 5 for the detail of three engineers, whose duty it shall be to examine all the bridges now erected or in process of erection across the Ohio River, and to report, &c. The officers detailed were myself, General Godfrey Weitzel, and Col. W. E. Merrill. Our final report is given in the Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers for 1871, pp. 397–457. The same assistant engineers, Mr. Cotton and Mr. Bentley, and the same methods were employed on the surveys of the Ohio River bridges that had been used upon the Mississippi. The most prominent feature of interest here at that time was the Newport and Cincinnati Bridge, then in process of erection, which was being built as a pivot draw, only 70 feet above low water, while the navigation interest claimed it should be by the law 100 feet above low water. The readiness with which the report on the Ohio can be consulted requires here no more than a reference to the distinctive features of the bridge. The law providing for the bridge between Cincinnati, Ohio, and Newport, Ky., grew out of that providing for the bridge at Steubenville, so that the debates in Congress on the subject which preceded the passage of that law became of interest, in order to ascertain the intention of the framers of that law. S. Ex. 69-13 All that is pertinent to this subject is given in the report of the Board of Engineers (Annual Report Chief of Engineers, 1871, pp. 435–440.) A minute description of the bridge as first designed is given in the same report, and it contains a recommendation that the constructors should be compelled to raise it to the height of 100 feet above low water for the security of navigation. The report of this board contains a fairly full account of all the bridges then built across the Ohio River. It also submitted a draught for a law regulating the bridging the Ohio River, with the reasons therefor. Congress, by an act approved March 3, 1871, required the building of the Newport and Cincinnati Bridge, as recommended by the Board of Engineers, and provided that the bridge company might file a bill in equity, in the United States circuit court for the southern district of Ohio, for reimbursement for expenses in making the change, if in their first plan they had not acted unlawfully. This suit has been commenced, but, at the date of this report, not decided. The decision will be looked for with interest in connection with the matter of reserved right which the United States laws make to remedy any injury to navi gation by future legislation, although the case of the Newport and Cincinnati Bridge is so pecular that it cannot have very general applica tion as a precedent. Congress, by an act approved December 17, 1872, established a gen. eral law for bridging the Ohio River, essentially as recommended by the Board of Engineers. Every proposition to bridge the Ohio River, under its provisions, must have the approval of the Secretary of War; and in the case of the bridge just below Cincinnati, the plan was submitted to a Board of Engineers consisting of General Simpson, Colonel Merrill, and Major Suter, Corps of Engineers. They decided that, at the site selected, a span of 500 feet was necessary to secure the clear navigable space which the law required. (Annual Report Chief of Engineers, 1876, Part II, p. 299). Under this decision, the city of Cincinnati built a clear span of 500 feet, standing on piers 100 feet above low water, upon the horizontal truss system, and without using steel or incurring any extraordinary expense. This is a great success for engineering in the interest of navigation. The Board of Engineers, which reported upon the Ohio River bridges, has been again convened, to consider the question of a bridge at Evans. ville, where some new and important engineering questions have been raised. Taken as a whole, Ohio River bridges have been provided, under circumstances of great difficulty, very thoroughly for the unobstructed navigation of that river. The following is a list of the bridges on the Ohio River below Pittsburgh: Steubenville, Ohio.-Railway bridge. Wheeling, W. Va.-Highway suspension bridge over main channel. Bellaire, Ohio.-Railway bridge. Parkersburg, W. Va.-Railway bridge. Newport and Cincinnati.-Railway and highway bridge. Covington and Cincinnati.-Highway suspension bridge. Cincinnati, Ohio.-Railway bridge. Louisville, Ky.-Railway bridge. MEMORANDUM UPON THE MISSOURI RIVER BRIDGES. These have all been built since the time when this investigation was ordered, and generally under the same requirements as in the laws for bridging the Mississippi. The less kindly nature of the Missouri in its changing banks and shoals and the advantage of a less depth to the bed-rock made the option for a high bridge 50 feet above high water and spans (one at least) not less than 300 feet in the clear much more favorably received by bridge companies on the Missouri than on the Mississippi above their junction. The gentle adaptable nature of the Mississippi River yields every advantage to free navigation, and yet submits to the worst conceivable obstructions without destroying them, although even here a limit to obstruction has been reached. The engineering of the bridges on the Missouri is, therefore, generally much better than that of the Upper Mississippi. For, while on the Mississippi all the bridges are on the low draw-bridge plan, except the highway bridge at Saint Paul, those on the Missouri, at Saint Charles, at Leavenworth, and Omaha, are high ones; 50 feet above high water. Hence the conclusion is plain that the high-bridge alternative is not in itself impracticable, for it has been several times adopted in preference to the low-draw plan, under circumstances similar to the cases in which low draw-bridges have been given the preference upon the Mississippi. Not having had the Missouri River bridges in my field of duty, I can give only a fragmentary account of them, which is as follows: Saint Charles, Mo., railway-bridge. Three channel-spans 300 feet in the clear, 50 feet above high water; three 300-feet deck-spans on the right and one such on the left of the channel-spans; approaches on iron trestles; maximum grade, 1 to 100. This is an admirable structure, designed and built by Smith & Latrobe, Baltimore Bridge Company. It occupied three years in building, being finished in 1871, at a cost of $1,797,186.19. This bridge was designed by General C. Shaler Smith, without any limiting provisions in the United States laws. Boonville, Mo., railway draw-bridge, 10 feet above high water, with draw-openings 160 feet in the clear. Built with unexampled dispatch, and finished in January, 1874. (See Van Nostrand, vol. 10, p. 91.) General W. Sooy Smith, engineer. Kansas City, Mo., railway draw-bridge, 10 feet above high water, with draw-opening 160 feet in the clear. Finished in July, 1870, Mr. O. Chanute, engineer. Full account by Mr. Chanute, published by Van Nostrand, 4to, with illustrations. This bridge is reported upon by Major Suter, Corps of Engineers, in Annual Report of Chief of Engineers for 1869, pp. 304-306. Leavenworth, Kans., elevated railway-bridge built 50 feet above high water, one span of 340 and two of 315 feet (probably from centers). Finished in 1872. General W. W. Wright, engineer. Foundation sunk to bed-rock. Atchison, Kans., railway draw-bridge; clear openings of 160 feet. Probably 10 feet above high water. Recently built. Saint Joseph, Mo., railway and highway draw-bridge, with clear openings of 160 feet each, one span of 80 feet and three of 300 feet. Foundation sunk to bed-rock by plenum pneumatic process. Finished in June, 1873. Mr Eddy D. Mason, engineer. Omaha, Nebr., elevated railway bridge 50 feet above high water. One channel-span, 300 feet in the clear, other spans, 250 feet. Finished in 1872. General W. Sooy Smith, engineer for the foundations, which are tubes, sunk by pneumatic process to bed-rock. List of bridges on Missouri River, authorized but not built. At Glasgow, Mo. At Lexington, Mo. At Nebraska, Nebr. ABSTRACT OF LAWS FOR BRIDGING THE OHIO, MISSISSIPPI, AND MISSOURI RIVERS. Act of Congress approved August 31, 1852, declared the suspension bridge over the Ohio River at WHEELING, VA., to be a lawful structure and a post-road. The highest of point this bridge is 91 feet above extreme low water, and 48 feet above highest water; for a width of 155 feet it has a height of 91 feet above low water. The distance between centers of towers is 1,010 feet, and between the faces of the abutments 980 feet. Act approved July 14, 1862, authorized the building of a bridge atSTEUBENVILLE, OHIO, or at any point over the Ohio River above the mouth of the Big Sandy River. The provisions for the Steubenville bridge were that it should leave an unobstructed headway in the channel of the river of not less than 90 feet above low-water mark, and an unobstructed width of not less than 300 feet between the piers next to said channel or water-way; and one of the spans next adjoining thereto shall not be less than 220 feet in length. If constructed with a draw it should be under the limitations of the section containing general provisions. This section allowed the bridge to be built either as a high bridge or draw-bridge. If built as a high bridge it should be not less than 90 feet above low water over the channel, nor in any case less than 40 feet above extreme high water, channel-span not to be less than 300 feet in width, and one of the next adjoining not less than 220 feet. If built as a draw-bridge the same shall be constructed with a span over the main channel 300 feet in length and not less than 70 feet above low water mark, and one of the next adjoining spans not less than 220 feet, and also that there shall be constructed a pivot-draw in every such bridge in a navigable part, with spans of not less than 100 feet on each side of the pivot. Act approved July 2, 1864, entitled An act to amend an act entitled "An act to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean, and to secure to the government the use of the same for postal, military, and other purposes," approved July first, eighteen hundred and sixty two, gave authority to the Union Pacific Railroad Company to construct bridges over the Missouri River and all other rivers, for the convenience of said road; provided, that the bridges be constructed with suitable and proper draws for the passage of steamboats, and in such manner as not to impair the usefulness of said rivers for navigation to any greater extent than such structures of the most approved character necessarily do. By section 13 of the act approved July 1, 1862, the Hannibal and Saint Joseph Railroad Company was authorized to extend its road from Saint Joseph, via Atchison, Kans., to unite with the road through Kansas upon the same terms and conditions as provided for the Union Pacific Railroad Company. Act approved February 17, 1865, declared that the bridge across the Ohio River, from— CINCINNATI, OHIO, TO COVINGTON, KY., when completed shall be a lawful structure and post-road (Highway Suspension Roebling's). Act approved February 17, 1865, amended the act approved July 14, 1862, so as to authorize the construction of a bridge over the Ohio River at the head of the Falls at LOUISVILLE, KY., provided that it shall be 56 feet above low water mark and with three draws sufficient to pass the largest boats navigat ing the Ohio River; one over the Indiana chute, one over the middle chute, and one over the canal. Provided, that the spans shall not be less than 240 feet in width, except the draw-spans; the draw-spans over the Indiana and middle chutes shall be 150 feet each side of pivot, and the draw over the canal 90 feet. (The company built a better bridge. See Annual Report Chief of Engineers, 1871, p. 419.) By act approved July 25, 1866, bridges were authorized to be built at— QUINCY, ILL., BURLINGTON, IOWA., HANNIBAL, Mo., PRAIRIE DU CHIEN, WIS., KEOKUK, IOWA, over the Mississippi River. WINONA, MINN., DUBUQUE, Iowa, SAINT LOUIS, MO., KANSAS CITY, Mo., over the Missouri River. The general provisions of this act were, that if built as high bridges they should be 50 feet above extreme high water mark, with spans not less than 250 feet in length, and one main or channel span not less than 300 feet in length; if built as draw-bridges, they shall have two drawopenings of not less than 160 feet in the clear, and next adjoining spans of not less than 250 feet, and should be 10 feet above high and 30 feet above low water. It provided that the bridge at Saint Louis should not be a suspension or draw-bridge, but of continuous or unbroken spans with the bottom chord 50 feet above the city directrix at its greatest span; that it should have at least one span 500 feet in the clear or two spans of 350 feet in the clear; that no span over the water at low-water mark should be less than 200 feet in the clear. Act approved February 27, 1867, declared the railway bridge over the Mississippi River at CLINTON, IOWA, to be a lawful structure and post-route. Act approved March 2, 1867, appropriated $200,000 for building theROCK ISLAND BRIDGE. It provided that the ownership should remain in the United States; that the Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company should have the right of way over said bridge and island for purposes of transit, upon the condition that the said company shall, before any money is expended, agree to pay half the cost of said bridge and half the expense of keeping it in repair. Act approved February 21, 1868, authorizing the Southern Minnesota Railroad Company to build a bridge at LA CROSSE, WIS., subject to the terms, conditions, &c., of the act approved July 25, 1866, authorizing bridge at Quincy, Ill., &c. Act approved July 20, 1868, authorized the building of a bridge over the Missouri, at— FORT LEAVENWORTH, KANS., and one at SAINT Joseph, Mo. The bridges must be 50 feet above extreme high-water mark to the bottom chord, and have spans of not less than 250 feet in the clear. Act approved July 20, 1868, provides that the bridge at SAINT LOUIS, MO., shall have one span of at least 500 feet clear between the piers. Act approved March 3, 1869, appropriated $500,000 for the construc. tion of the— ROCK ISLAND BRIDGE. Resolution approved March 3, 1869, gave consent to the erection of a bridge over the Ohio, from CINCINNATI, OHIO, to NEWPORT, KY.; provided that the bridge be |