Contract bridge

“ When the fact that the bridge spanned a great navigable river, and the duty of the government to protect that navigability, is borne in mind, moreover, when the facts found by the court below as to the period when navigation would be suspended as the result of natural causes is also considered in connection with the obligation which the contract imposed of completing the drawspan within such nonnavigable period, we are of opinion that the contract must be interpreted as exacting that the means employed in constructing the drawspan should be such as would not operate to impede navigation. ”

“ In the latter case, the road, abutments, bridge, and franchise were taken for public use with compensation. But here the legislature suspends the ferries for the benefit of the bridge company. If I enter into a contract with a man, can the legislature take away that contract? If it be an executed contract, can the sovereign take away the fruits of it? Here, however, the legislature does not pretend to take away the grant, but to alter its provisions, and to alter them not for its own benefit, but for that of another. ”

“ The right to collect toll of persons and things passing over their bridges, is the privilege or franchise which they have, and that right is rendered valuable by the prohibition to build other bridges within the limits designated. This prohibition of other bridges is so far a part of the contract, and only so far, as it is necessary to enable plaintiffs to reap the benefit of their right to collect toll for the use of their bridges. ”

“ In the first place, the legislature has declared, that the erecting of the bridge will be of great public utility; and this exposition of its own motives for the grant, requires the court to give a liberal interpretation, in order to promote, and not to destroy, an enterprise of great public utility. In the next place, the grant is a contract for a valuable consideration, and a full and adequate consideration. The proprietors are to lay out a large sum of money (and in those times it was a very large outlay of capital) in erecting a bridge ”

“ We never have built and we never will build a cheap bridge. Ours don't fall."
There was a pause; then the president of the bridge company, Mr. Allison, the great Senator, asked if I would excuse them for a few moments. I retired. Soon they recalled me and offered the contract, provided we took the lower price, which was only a few thousand [Pg 125] dollars less. I agreed to the concession. That cast-iron lamp-post so opportunely smashed gave us one of our most profitable contracts and, what is more, obtained for us the reputation of having taken the Dubuque bridge against all competitors. ”

“ In this, there is a guarantee that the state shall pass no law to impair the contract. It is not true, that we can have no property in the line of travel, if by that, is meant, in the franchise granted by Gov. Winthrop and others, the right of transporting passengers from Boston to Charlestown. The franchise is valuable, because the transportation was concentrated at the points at which the plaintiffs' bridge was erected. The construction of the grant to us, which we demand, it is said, is not valuable. The plaintiffs say otherwise, and the issue is with this court. ”

“ They deny the contract, or that the contract prohibits the erection of a railroad bridge.
The act of 1860 is the only authority the defendants have. No bridge can be erected over a navigable river but by authority of the sovereign. The record shows that the whole right depended on this statute. The decision dismissing the bill and refusing all relief, was in favor of the statute and the authority exercised under it. The validity of the statute of 1860 and the authority exercised under it was therefore drawn in question, as being repugnant to the Constitution of the United States. ”

“ If the contract is clear, and the bridges both within the letter and object of it, the State must adhere to its contract although improvident.
In The Enfield Toll-Bridge Company v. The Hartford and New Haven Railway Company [26] the point now before this court was fully argued in a full bench. Williams, C. J., one of the ablest of the jurists of America, in delivering the opinion of the court speaks as follows. We cite his language as much for its cogency, as we do the judgment for its authority. Thus he speaks for the law. It is impossible that we can speak more potently for ourselves. ”

“ The bill sets forth, that in the year 1790, the legislature of New Jersey passed an act appointing commissioners, with powers to contract for the building of one bridge over each of the rivers Passaic and Hackensack, authorizing said commissioners to fix the maximum rate of toll to be taken by the builders, and granting them this right of toll for ninety-nine years. ”

“ The building of the Forth Bridge Station, and the widening of cutting, bridges, and embankments not at first contemplated, will bring up the total cost to about 20,000l. The contract will probably not be finished until the end of April. ”

“ March 12, 1928, National Construction Company made a contract with the state, through its Department of Highways and Public Works, for the construction of a bridge. An act of 1917 required such a contractor to furnish a bond with surety to protect the state and to secure payment to persons furnishing materials, supplies, and labor for the project. [1] The company executed such a bond with the appellee as surety. The appellant agreed with the Construction Company to furnish certain labor and materials for the erection of the bridge. ”

“ In his case, however, success came early, and within three years he had advanced so far in means and reputation, that he was intrusted with the contract for iron bridges on the Glasgow, Hamilton, and Bothwell Railway, one of them being a very large structure spanning the Clyde. ”

“ This evil affects particularly highway bridges. The ordinary county commissioner or selectman considers himself amply competent to contract for a bridge of wood or iron, though he may never have given a single day of thought to the matter before his appointment to office. The result is, that we see all over the country a great number of highway bridges which have been sold by dishonest builders to ignorant officials, and which are on the eve of falling, and await only an extra large crowd of people, a company of soldiers, a procession, or something of the sort, to break down. ”

“ For the sinking of the caissons a number of foreign workmen were employed for a short time, and it is rather a curious coincidence that, as foreign workmen did some of the earliest work in connection with the bridge, so now again a number of foreign men are employed upon some of the last work—namely, the laying of the asphalt pavement along the footpaths of the permanent way, which is done under a sub-contract by the Seyssel Asphalt Company. ”

“ It confers on them the ordinary faculties of a corporation for the purpose of building the bridge, and establishes certain rates of toll which the company are authorized to take; this is the whole grant. There is no exclusive privilege given to them over the waters of Charles river above or below the bridge; no right to erect another bridge themselves, nor to prevent other persons from erecting one; no engagement from the state that another shall not be erected ”

“ They had a right granted for what they asked, namely, to erect a bridge in the place where the ferry was then kept, and to take toll of such as passed over. This is all the franchise provided for in the act; there is not a word about any other rights and exclusive privileges. Nothing restraining the power to make new bridges; no covenant, that there shall be no diminution of travel, or diversion of it; no line of travel guarantied-nothing said of the travel between the two towns; not a word about making compensation, if any of their property should be taken for public use. ”

“ As has often been said by this court, bridges are merely connecting links of turnpikes, streets, and railroads; and the commerce over them may be much greater than on the streams which they cross. A break in the line of railroad communication from the want of a bridge may produce much greater inconvenience to the public than the obstruction to navigation caused by a bridge with proper draws. ”

“ In common with our citizens, they submitted propositions to the legislature, but they could urge no exclusive right to afford any accommodation beyond what was given by their bridge. When the Charles River bridge was built, it was considered a work of great magnitude. It was, perhaps, the first experiment made to throw a bridge of such length over an arm of the sea; and in the construction of it, great risk and expense were incurred. The unrestricted profits contemplated, were necessary to induce or justify the undertaking. ”

“ There is no intimation in it of a distinct bridge franchise. It grants no power to build a bridge. Its main purpose manifestly was to give the company additional means and privileges for the completion of a structure already authorized, not to enable them to construct a new and independent road. To hold that the bridge is not a part of the road would defeat the plain object Congress had in view in 1862 and 1864,-a continuous line for connection with the Iowa roads. ”

“ To the river the city owes its origin, and for a century and more its river commerce was predominant. It is now the great obstacle to connection between the termini of lines on opposite sides of the river and any entry into the city by eastern lines. The cost of construction and maintenance of railroad bridges over so great a river makes it impracticable for every road desiring to enter or pass through the city to have its own bridge. The obvious solution is the maintenance of toll bridges open to the use of any and all lines, upon identical terms. ”

“ The franchise cannot subsist without it, at least, for any valuable or practical purpose. What objection can there be to implications, if they arise from the very nature and objects of the grant? If it be indispensable to the full enjoyment of the right to take toll, that it should be exclusive within certain limits, is it not just and reasonable, that it should be so construed? If the legislative power to errect a new bridge would annihilate a franchise already granted, is it not, unless expressly reserved, necessarily excluded, by intendment of law? ”

“ Opposition to all new bridges has been deemed reasonable. But why is any enlargement of the grant reasonable? What you give to the ferry, you take from the public; and the public cannot spare it, without inconvenience. In a word, is it reasonable, or right, to traverse the regions of conjecture in this matter? To make laws which shall assign boundaries to this franchise, when the plaintiffs can show no manner of title to what they set up?
They urge that Warren bridge is a clear interference, because it takes away their tolls. So is West Boston and Canal bridges, for the same reason ”

“ In the construction of the new bridge it became necessary to dismantle the draw of the old one, and to erect temporary supports while the timbers and draw of the new bridge were being put in place. To prevent the stoppage of its trains while this building was going on, the company constructed a temporary bridge adjoining the old one, for their transportation; expecting to have the new bridge completed before the winter rise, which usually began near the close of December, should render the river navigable. ”

“ A maritime lien can only exist upon movable things engaged in navigation, or upon things which are the subjects of commerce on the high seas or navigable waters. It may arise with reference to vessels, steamers, and rafts, and upon goods and merchandise carried by them. But it cannot arise upon anything which is fixed and immovable, like a wharf, a bridge, or real estate of any kind. Though bridges and wharves may aid commerce by facilitating intercourse on land, or the discharge of cargoes, they are not in any sense the subjects of maritime lien. ”

“ There is great competition among very excellent and responsible men of the country, as well as from the railroad and canal below us.
The offers for the bridge render its construction with stone next to impracticable, under the law, to finish the road with $300,000. They are as follows: $22,000, $21,930, $23,323, $22,680, $24,000.
To construct the abutments I have offers at $3.80 cents per perch; that would, with the superstructure of wood, make the whole cost not to exceed $6,500 to $7,000. We cannot with propriety expend so large a sum for a stone bridge, with such limited means. ”

“ Your petitioners therefore pray the court, by an able, judicious, and disinterested committee, to cause said route to be surveyed, and such alterations and improvements to be made in the old road, or a new one to be laid, as the public good may require; and also to take the real estate, easement, or franchise of the 'West River Bridge Company,' a corporation owning the aforesaid toll-bridge, for the purpose of making a free road and bridge across said river, agreeable to the statute in such case made and provided ”

“ They are not conditional orders to raise the bridge if the defendants can obtain the consent of parties not before the court, and of one authority, at least, not subject to its control. They cannot be qualified by speculation as to what is likely to happen in fact. They are out-and-out orders to remove bridges that are a necessary part of lines of commerce by rail among the states. ”

“ The doctrine of a paramount power in Congress over bridges crossing navigable streams-either to authorize their construction, or regulate them, that is, control them when constructed-derives no support from its power to protect the free navigation of such streams. If a bridge, for example, built under the law of a State, should cross a navigable stream, at so high a point, and in such a way, as in no manner to obstruct its free navigation, Congress could not interfere with the structure. ”