CHAP. 153.—An ACT to incorporate the Berlin and Lovettsville
bridge company for the purpose of constructing and owning a
bridge at Berlin, Frederick county, Maryland, across the Poto-
mac river to Loudoun county, Virginia.

Approved Feburary 3, 1890.

Whereas the Loudoun and Berlin bridge company, by the
authority of an act of the general assembly of Virginia,
did, on the twenty-second day of December, eighteen hun-
dred and fifty-eight, execute a deed of trust to one David

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Hixon, as trustee, conveying all its corporate rights, fran-
chiseas, and ferry privileges, et cetera, and in accordance
with said deed of trust said Hixon, trustee, sold the same
on November tenth, eighteen hundred and fifty-nine, at
public auction, to R. J. T. White, W. W. Wenner, and
others, which last named parties, by deed filed of record,
changed the name of said bridge company to “the Lou-
doun and Frederick bridge company ;” and whereas be fore
said conveyance the parties owning the ferry rights at
said point had conveyed the same absolutely to said bridge
company; and whereas during the late war the bridge
owned by said company was destroyed, and the individual
members of said last named company have each and all
of them, by writing duly acknowledged and delivered,
conveyed all their shares of stock in said company, for
valuable consideration, to Daniel Baker, junior, and
Douglass H. Hargett; therefore,

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia,
That the aforesaid sales be, and are hereby, ratified and
confirmed, and Daniel Baker, junior, Douglass H. Har-
gett, R. H. Tebbs, and J. B. McCabe, their associates,
successors, and assigns and such pérsons as may he here-
after associated with them, and together and in co-opera-
tion with such like corporation as may be chartered under
the laws of the state of Maryland, be, and are hereby,
created a body corporate and politic by the name of the
Berlin and Lovettsville bridge company, and by such
name may sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, and
havea common seal, which it may alter at pleasure; may
purchase and own real estate and personal property; may
make contracts, written or parol, whether by deed, mort-
gage, or otherwise, and shall! succeed to all the franchises,
rights and privileges heretofore had and granted to or
acquired by the Loudoun and Berlin bridge company, or
the Loudoun and Frederick bridge company, including the
bridge and ferry privileges, real estate, et cetera; and any
claim or claims the state of Virginia may have had
therein are hereby granted to said company hereby incor-
porated.

2. The capital stock of said company shall not be less
than twenty thousand dollars, nor more than one hun-
dred thousand dollars,and may be increased from the
minimum to the maximum from time to time as the board
of directors of said company may determine.

3. The stock shall not be less than one hundred dol-
lars per share; said company may organize when twenty-
five per centum of the minimum capital stock has been
duly subscribed and paid up, and said incorporators, or
any two of them herein mentioned, who are hereby com-
missioned for the purpose, may open books of subscrip-
tion in such manner, time, and place or places, as they may
see proper, and when said last mentioned amount of
money has been paid in, said incorporators may proceed to
organize by electing proper officers.

4. No subscriber to the stock of the company shall be
liable for more than the stock subscribed for by him and
any unpaid quota thereon. Each share of the stock shall
entitle the stockholder thereof to one vote. There shall
be annual meetings of said company for the election of
the officers thereof.

5. The said company hereby incorporated may con-
struct a bridge over the Potomacriver at Berlin, Frederick
county, Maryland, to a point in Loudoun county, Virginia,
and are hereby authorized to select the site for said bridge
formerly located by the Loudoun and Berlin bridge com-
pany, if it sees proper; such bridge may be constructed of
iron, stone, brick, or lumber, or partly of different mate-
rials, as it-may deem best, and to this end may appoint
such engineers, superintendents, or other officers as the
said company may think necessary; and when said bridge
is completed it may appoint certain toll-gatherers, and
apply to the proper authorities to have them vested with
police power to protect and preserve the property of said
company and preserve order thereon.

6. The principal office of said company shall be in Fred-
erick city, Frederick county, Maryland, where the directors
shall meet at such times as may be fixed upon for the
transaction of the business of the company; and they
shall keep correct minutes of all their transactions fairly
entered in a book which any stockholder may be at liberty
to inspect.

7. That for and in consideration of the great risk and
expenses to be incurred by said company not only for
building said bridge, but for keeping the same in repair,
the said bridge, when built and completed, and the lands
and franchises connected with the same, and all its profits
and tolls, shall be and are hereby vested in said company
forever, or to be held as tenants in common in proportion
to their respective shares; and it shall be lawful for said
company, hy its directors, to demand and receive such
reasonable tax or toll for the passage and use of such
bridge as it may from time to time fix and agree upon,
and it may do all things necessary to regulate the use of
said bridge and the immediate ways thereto by the public.

8. That if any person shall unlawfully injure any part
of said bridge, or shall unlawfully obstruct the passage
thereof, or in any way unlawfully interfere with ite fran-
chises, and be found in this commonwealth, he shall be
fined for such offense not exceeding one hundred dollars,
unless the offense be that mentioned in section thirty-
seven hundred of the code of Virginia of eighteen hun-
dred and eighty-seven, in which case the punishment shall
be as therein mentioned ; and the county court of Loudoun
county, in all cases, and the justices of the peace of said
county, where the offense was mere misdemeanor, shall
have jurisdiction to try and punish such offenses com-
mitted on said bridge as though it were wholly located in
the state of Virginia.

9. The said company in its corporate capacity, may have
the right to borrow money in such sums as it may deem
best to the interests of said company, and. to issue bonds
and secure the same by mortgages or trust deed, and dis-
count such bonds at prices to realize such sums as the
board of directors may deem best; and to secure bonds,
may encumber its property, real and personal, rights and
privileges and its corporate effects of every description.

10. This company, in accepting the privileges of this
charter, thereby agrees to pay all taxes hereafter assessed
against it for the state of Virginia in lawful money of the
United States and not in coupons from Virginia bonds.

11. The construction of the bridge herein mentioned
shall be commenced within two years and completed
within four years, or this act shall be void.

12. When said bridge is completed and open to the
public, no ferry right shal] be granted within the distance
therefrom mentioned in section thirteen hundred and
eighty-five, code of Virginia of eighteen hundred and
eighty-seven, by any court or other authority in this state,
and any one doing any act mentioned in said section of
said code within said distance of said bridge shall be lia-
ble to the punishment provided in said section.

13. And be it further enacted, that the commissioners
heretofore mentioned be, and are hereby, authorized to
receive in payment of subscriptions for the stock any
property, real or personal, necessary in the construction or
proper use of said bridge.

14. That all acts or parts of acts in conflict with this
act are hereby repealed.

15. This act shall be in force from its passage.