States; but Congress reserves the right to withdraw the assent hereby given in case the free navigation of said river shall at any time be substantially and materially obstructed by any bridge to be erected under the authority of this resolution, or to direct the necessary modifications and alterations of said bridge. Approved March 3, 1869. AN ACT to establish a bridge across the Ohio River, at Cincinnati, Ohio, a post-road. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the bridge across the Ohio River at Cincinnati, in the State of Ohio, and at Covington, in the State of Kentucky, is hereby declared to be, when completed, in accordance with the laws of the States of Ohio and Kentucky, a lawful structure and post-road for the conveyance of the mails of the United States. Approved February 17, 1865. AN ACT supplementary to an act approved July fourteen, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, entitled An act to establish certain post-roads." Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the act of Congress approved July fourteen, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, entitled "An act to establish certain post-roads," shall be, and the same is hereby, so amended as to authorize the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company, and the Jeffersonville Railroad Company, (stockholders in the Louisville Bridge Company,) to construct a railroad bridge over the Ohio river at the head of the falls of the Ohio, subject to all the provisions of said act: Provided, That the said bridge may be constructed at a height not less than fifty-six feet above low-water mark, and with three draws, sufficient to pass the largest boats navigating the Ohio River; one over the Indiana chute, one over the middle chute, and one over the canal: Provided, That the spans of said bridge shall not be less than two hundred and forty feet, except over the Indiana and middle chute and the canal; said bridge shall be constructed with draws of one hundred and fifty feet wide on each side of the pivot pier over the Indiana and middle chutes, and ninety feet wide over the canal: And provided further, That said bridge and draws shall be so constructed as not to interrupt the navigation of the Ohio River. SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the bridge erected under the provisions of this act shall be a lawful structure, and shall be recognized and known as a post-route. Approved February 17, 1865. JOINT RESOLUTION anthorizing the building of a railroad bridge over the Ohio River at Paducah, Kentucky. Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the consent of Congress be, and the same is hereby, given to the erection of a railroad bridge over the Ohio River from the city of Paducah, Kentucky, to the State of Illinois, by the Paducah and Gulf Railroad Company and such others as may associate with them for that purpose under the laws of the States of Kentucky and Illinois: Provided, That said bridge is built with an unbroken or continuous span of not less than four hundred feet in the clear, from pier to pier, over the main channel of the river, and is built in all other respects in accordance with the conditions and limitations of an act entitled "An act to establish certain post-roads, approved July fourteen, eighteen hundred and sixty-two;" that the said bridge, when completed in the manner specified in this resolution, shall be deemed and taken to be a legal structure, and shall be a post-road for the transmission of the mails of the United States; but Congress reserves the right to withdraw the assent hereby given in case the free navigation of said river shall at any time be substantially and materially obstructed by any bridge to be erected under the authority of this resolution, or to direct the necessary modifications and alterations of said bridge. Approved April 7, 1869. The losses by collision with the piers of bridges spanning the Ohio River, heavy as it is, constitutes but a small item of the aggregate loss resulting from such obstructions. The great loss sustained is by detention arising from the necessity of landing our towboats and waiting for daylight, not daring to run the narrow channel-ways at night, thus involving loss of time and extra expense of crews and fuel, in addition to the extra hazards of landing our immense tows. Even passenger boats, at certain stages of water, have to land and wait for daylight. The aggravating character of these obstructions will be apparent if we suppose the trains of any important railroad under the necessity of stopping every fifty or one hundred miles to wait for daylight, to pass certain artificial obstructions crossing their road. Would it be endured? This is precisely the hardship imposed upon the river navigation by bridge obstructions. JOHN F. DRAVO, President Pittsburgh Coal Exchange. Paid bridge company. $30,000 00 Committee expenses for collections, traveling, visiting Washington City and Parkersburgh, attorney's fees, &c..... 1,586 67 31,586 67 JOHN F. DRAVO, President Pittsburgh Coal Exchange. Appendix D. DECEMBER 12, 1870. To Brigadier General A. A. HUMPHREYS, Chief of Engineers, United States Army. GENERAL: The board appointed by your order, in accordance with section 5 of the act making appropriations for the improvement of rivers and harbors, approved July 11, 1870, have examined the Newport and Cincinnati bridge, now in process of construction over the Ohio River, and present the following special report upon this work. Section 5, referred to above, is as follows: "And be it further enacted, That the Secretary of War is hereby authorized and required to detail three engineers, whose duty it shall be to examine all bridges now erected or in process of erection, across the Ohio River, and to report whether, in their opinion, such bridges, or any of them, as now constructed, or proposed to be constructed, do or will interfere with the free and safe navigation of said river; and if they do or will so interfere, to report also what extent of span and elevation above water will be required to prevent obstruction to navigation, and their estimate of the cost required to change such bridges now built, or being built, to such width of span and elevation above the water as will prevent obstruction to navigation, such report to be made and communicated to the next session of Congress." The duties imposed by the above law are so thorough and comprehensive as to require a lengthened report. To facilitate its consultation by those who wish to arrive at a knowledge of only the general features of the case, and of our conclusions and recommendations, we have made the first part of our report somewhat of a summary of the whole, and have placed the details of each division of the subject in separate chapters, for the use of those who wish to thoroughly examine the subject and judge for themselves. The Newport and Cincinnati Bridge Company possess, under the law approved July 14, 1862, and the joint resolution approved March 3, 1869, the option of building a bridge not less than 40 feet above the highest water without a draw-span, or a bridge not less than 70 feet above lowest water with a draw-span, with the reservation by Congress of the right to withdraw the assent given "in case the free navigation of the river shall at any time be substantially and materially obstructed by any bridge to be erected under the authority of this resolution, or to direct the necessary modifications and alterations of said bridge." We are unanimously of the opinion that this bridge, as being constructed, is a serious obstacle to the free navigation of the Ohio River; and that it imperatively calls upon Congress to exercise its specially reserved right of modification. In order to assist to a full and clear comprehension of the subject in all its phases, we have thought it proper to present a brief abstract of the course of legislation and debate upon this subject of bridging the Ohio, since the introduction of the bill which, in a modified form, became the law approved July 14, 1862. This history is presented in the next chapter, and is made up from the debates in the Congressional Globe and the statements of members of Congress who voted for the joint resolution. From this it appears that the law approved July 14, 1862, providing that the largest span should be 300 feet, was only agreed to at that time by the river interests on account of the alleged impracticability of making longer spans at reasonable expense. One of the provisions of this law required that if the bridge was built without a draw, it should not be less than 90 feet above lowest water, and not less than 40 feet above highest water. These prescribed elevations made this part of the law applicable to places of varying ranges between high and low water; but its operation was expressly limited to the Ohio River, above the mouth of the Big Sandy. As some members of Congress were apprehensive that the bridge, if built at so great an elevation, would be insecure, a provision was made that the bridge might be built at 70 feet above lowest water, with pivot-draw giving two clear openings of 100 feet each. Unfortunately this alternative provision made no stipulation about the height above highest water of bridges using draws, and this bas since become a very serious omission, in consequence of its operations having been extended so as to include Cincinnati. Seventy feet above lowest water is at least 25 above highest water at Steubenville, while at Cincinnati 70 feet above lowest water is but 73 feet above highest water. The reasons for requiring the draw openings to be only 100 feet do not appear in the debates, but they were pronounced too narrow at the time by several members. It has been stated that the joint resolution approved March 3, 1869, was a compromise between the navigation and bridge interests; and so it undoubtedly was in regard to length of span. The navigation interests had been striving to secure 500foot spans instead of 300, and the compromise was on 400 feet for the main span. Representatives J. K. Moorhead, Benjamin Eggleston, and S. F. Cary, who voted for the joint resolution, state that it was with the express understanding that the bridge was not to be of less height than the existing suspension bridge, or not less than 40 feet above highest water. It is most unfortunate that this understanding was not made a part of the resolution itself. But the neglect of the bridge companies at Steubenville, Bellaire, and Parkersburgh, to build low bridges, under the act of July 14, 1862, caused this provision of this act for a low bridge to be overlooked. The provision for a high bridge under this law would have been satisfactory. These facts show that the compromise, as understood by those who made it, has not been complied with in building the bridge at Cincinnati on the draw-bridge plan, and that it lacks the essential quality of a compromise in not being understood in the same sense by those who are said to have made it; and hence it cannot be made a reason for Congress refraining from exercising the reserved right to compel the modification of the bridge itself. The Government of the United States is the custodian of the public rights on these great navigable streams; and though parties interested in special branches of trade may consent to certain designs of bridges, the Government alone, comprehending all interests, should be the final judge in such matters. It is proper to state here in regard to long spans of 400 feet and upward, that they are not impracticable at reasonable expense, and that when properly proportioned, they are much more stable and safe than smaller spans, because their own weight is so great in proportion to the moving load that the latter changes the permanent strain but little. High piers proportionally widened and lengthened are just as firm as low ones, and the greatest pressure the stone has to sustain is not one-tenth of its crushing load. Those who wish to see these points illustrated can do so by visiting Louisville and examining the bridge built at that place across the Ohio-an admirable structure that overcomes every objection that can be made against a high bridge. A detailed description of the Newport and Cincinnati bridge as it is "in process of erection" is given further on. From this it will be seen the bridge is to be 714 feet in the clear above low water, and 9 feet above highest water at the main channel span. This span is 400 feet between the piers. The piers, however, are not parallel with the current, but make an angle of 12 with it. The practical effect of this want of parallelism is to reduce the width of the span to 390 feet, which is less than the law requires. The foundations of the piers are not laid deep enough in the bed of the river, and will require protection; and unless this is done with care and at considerable expense, there will be a still further reduction of the channel-way. Our examination was made when the river was 6 feet above the lowest stage. It is probable that the course of the current is not materially different at other stages, and therefore we have to report that the piers are not parallel with the current, as the law requires. This angle, which the piers make with the current, is occasioned by the line of the bridge being taken so as to accommodate the railroad approaches from the Little Miami depot. On this account, too, there is a curve with a radius of 609 feet on the bridge, over two spans of 96 feet each, on the Cincinnati side. This curve compelled the use of these two short spans, where otherwise a single span would have been better. The cost of the bridge was thus increased, and the flow of the river at high water was obstructed. Under the law one of the spans, next the main span, must give a clear opening of 220 feet, and as the curve spoken of above would not allow of its being placed on the Cincinnati side, it was placed on the Newport side of the main span. Although this main span is over the deepest water, it is said that the main flow at high water is somewhat on the Newport side of it, and it would have been better to have placed the 220foot span on the Cincinnati side, and the 400-foot span 200 feet nearer the Newport side. The position of this main span is not in violation of the law, but its location might have been made so much better for navigation, that this fact alone demonstrates |