Chap. 435.—An AUT to Incorporate the James River Bridge Company.

Approved November 5, 1870.

Whereas, a bill containing mainly the same provisions here-
inafter enacted, and having the same title, passed both branches
of the general assembly before its late recess, but the same not
having been approved by the signature of the executive, diffi-
culties have occurred tending to embarrass the enforcement of
the provisions of said bill: therefore, in order to remove all
difficulties in the premises,

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly, That William G.
Taylor, William I. Clopton, James M. Moody, C. C. McRae,
and Erasmus Gary, who have been nominatéd by the trustees
of the town of Manchester as suitable commissioners to rep-
resent the interests of said town, be and they are hereby con-
stituted a body corporate under the name and atyle of The
James River Bridge Company, and as such, they shall have a
— seal, and have authority to sue and be liable to be
sued.

2. Said commissioners shall, as soon as convenient, organize
by the election of a president, vice-president, and secretary ;
and after such organization, they shall be known as The Board
of Commissioners of the James River Bridge Company. They
may enact suitable by-laws for the purpoees of their organiza-
tion; appoint other necessary officers: provided, however, that
no member of said board shall receive any compensation for
any services performed by him as commissioner.

3. The said board are authorized to contract for the con-
struction, and cause to be constructed, a bridge across the
James river at any point from the corporate limits of the city
of Richmond to any point on the opposite side of the river,
either at, above, or below the town of Manchester.

4. For the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this
act, the trustees of the town of Manchester, or their succes-
sors in authority, are hereby authorized to subscribe, in behalf
of said town, a sum not exceeding five hundred thousand dol-
lars; and in order to raise the whole or any part of such sub-
scription, the said trustees, or their successors in authority,
through the agency of said board of commissioners, may bor-
row the money, or any part thereof, payable in such times and
on such rates of interest, not exceeding twelve per centum per
annnum, payable annually or semi-annually, as the commis-
sioners, with the approval of said trustees or their successors
in authority, may deem best. The said trustees, or their suc-
cessors in authority, may execute for such loan, coupon bonds,
or any other form of obligation the commissioners may deem
suitable, and the credit of the town of Manchester shall be
pledged for the redemption of such loan, and the same may be
secured by a trust deed on the land? with its water-power,
appurtenances, and rents, known as the town commons.

). Said board of commissioners shall, as soon as said bridge
is ready for travel, provide for charging tolls, and regulate the
rates of said tolls: provided, that the maximum rate on any
person, vehicle, animal, or article, shall not exceed the maxi-
mum rate now allowed to be charged for passing over the toll-
bridge at Richmond known as Mayo’s bridge. Said commis-
sioners shall also provide for the appointment of toll-gatherers
and other necessary and proper agents.

6. All revenues derived from said bridge shall be managed
and kept in such manner as the said board, with the approval
of said trustees, or their successors in authority, may prescribe ;
but the same shall be kept distinct from other funds or reve-
nues of said town, and shall be applied, first, exclusively to the
keeping said bridge in repair and paying the current expenses
thereot; secondly, to the redemption or repayment of the
principal sum, with interest, expended in the original construc-
tion of said bridge.

7.-The net income derived from the rents of the town com-
mon, and the water-power appurtenant thereto, shall be spe-
cially set apart and applied to the payment of the interest ac-
cruing on the existing bonded debt of the town, together with
the interest on any debt incurred by the town under this act,
so far as it may be necessary for the said town to look to any
source for the payment of the debt contracted under this act
other than the revenues to be derived from said bridge.

8. Said board of commissioners may, from time to time, dis-
continue the collection of tolls, and trom time to time, upon
reasonable notice, resume sach collections, as circumstances
may authorize, in pursuance of the other provisions of this act.

9. If any person shall refuse to pay toll when properly de-
manded, he shall forfeit ten dollars, which, together with the
toll so due and costs, shall be recoverable before any justice of
the peace. Any sum so recovered shall be applied in the same
manner with tolls; but this provision shall not be deemed to
impair the right of said board of commissioners or their agents
to refuse passage to any person or thing on or over said bridge
until the lawful tolls are paid therefor.

10. If any person shall ride or drive on or over said bridge
at any galt faster than a walk, the person so offending shall
forfeit ten dollars, to be recovered, with costs, aud applied as
in the preceding section provided.

11. Said bridge, with the roads or streets leading thereto or
therefrom, shall not be more than eighty feet wide. Said
board of commissioners are authorized to acquire, by contract,
the land necessary tor the purposes of said bridge and its proper
appurtenances, and no more; or they may acquire the same by
condemnation, in pursuance of the provisions of chapter fifty-
six, Code of Virginia (eighteen hundred and sixty), and the
general Acts of assembly and laws regulating condemnation
of lands for public purppses, to be pursued and adopted as far
as practicable and consistent with the provisions of this act.
But they shall not acquire any lands or houses used for the
purposes of Mayo’s britige; but this proviso shall not be so
construed as to prevent the condemnation of any land or
houses belonging to the owners of Mayo’s bridge not neces-
sary for the uninterrupted passage over said bridge of persons
or vehicles.

12. Said board of commissioners are authorized to let. the
use of said bridge, on such terms as may be agreed on, to in-
dividuals or companies for fixed periods, i in lien of recs ving
from such persons or companies the ordinary rates of tolls du-
ring such periods; and said board of commissioners may con-
tract with any person or company for a temporary or perma-
nent exemption from tolls of certain persons or other things 5
or they may contract for such exemption either to be tempo-
rary or perpetual, applicable to the owners or occupiers of
particular tracts, lots, or parcels of land, which last. named
right of exemption shall be appurtenant to the land, and shall
be evidenced by such instruments and in such form as the said
board of commissioners may, by its by-laws, prescribe, or may
otherwise Le agreed on between the parties; and the clerk of
the county court of Chesterfield is required to record in the
deed bock of said county, any such evidence of exemption
offered for record, if certified as deeds are required to be cer-
tified for record.

13. Said bridge may be constructed with the view of aceom-
modating a street railway over the same, and the said board of
cominissioners may construct such railway, and out of the cap-
ital stock and funds of said company put and keep the same in
operation; or they may contract with other persons or compa-
nies either for the construction of such street railway or for
running their cars over the same, or both purposes; and said
commissioners are authorized to extend such street railroad to
any point or peints over and through the streets of Manches-
ter, or over the roads and streets adjacent thereto, in the
county of Chesterfield, not exceeding five miles, in any branch,
from the corporate limits of said town; and they are also au-
thorized to connect said railway with the street railway in
Richmond, with the consent of the company or other persons
owning the said last named street railway, and of the council
of the city of Richmond.

14. The right of condemnation or purchase shall apply to
the opening of any new street or road either within or with-
out the corporate limits of Manchester, in the county of Ches-
terfield, or for the widening of any existing street or road,
which may be deemed by said commiasioners convenient for the
use of said bridge or railway.

15. All persons residing in the town Manchester, shall,
during such residence, be entirely exempt from tolls on their

ersons. All vehicles, animals, or articles, kept in said town

y persons residing therein, shall be subject to like exemption
from tolls; and all persons or companies leasing water-power
from said town, in regard to all transportation connected with
their business as such lessees, shall be entitled to like exemp-
tion, without regard to the personal residence of such lessees,
when the transportation is done by vehicles and animals ex-
empted from tolls as above, or by vebicles and animals kept by
such lessees in said town. It shall be incumbent on any per-
son or company to establish or prove his or their claim to ex-
emption under this section in such manner as the said board of
commissioners may prescribe.

16. The said board of commissioners, with the approval of
the trustees, or their successors in authority, of the town of
Manchester, are authorized to negotiate with the proper au-
thorities of the county of Chesterfield, or any township formed
or to be formed therein, and with the common council or other
proper authorities of the city of Richmond, in accordance with
the sixty-seventh section, chapter five of the charter of said
city, and with individuals, or with any of them, for subscrip-
tion, to be made by such county or any township therein, and
by said city, or by such individuals, to the capital stock of said
company; and if any such subscriptions are made, a corre-
sponding reduction shall be made in the subscription otherwise
necessary to be made by the town of Manchester; and the au-
thorities of the county of Chesterfield, or any township thereof,
or of the city of Richmond, agreeing with the said board of com-
missioners, with the approval of the trustees of Manchester, or
their successors in authority, shall have like powers with the
said trustees of Manchester, or their successors in authority,
to borrow the sum subscribed by them, or any of them. Such
agreement may involve a temporary, perpetual, or partial ex-
emption from tolls of the residents of the county, city, or
township subscribing; and the county, or townsbip, or city
subscribing, may appoint such additional members of the board
of commissioners, in proportion to their subscriptions, as may
be agreed on, to represent such county, township, or city : pro-
vided, however, that the whole number of such commissioners
shall not exceed fifteen; and any additional commissioners, 80
appointed, shall constitute a part of the original board organ-
ized as hereinbefore provided. The proper authorities of the
county, township, or city subscribing under this section, shall
have relation and authority to and over the commissioners ap-
pointed by them, similar to that conferred on the trustees of!
the town of Manchester, or their successors in authority, in
regard to the commissioners representing said town. The
town of Manchester shall be exempt from the burden of any
subscription made under this act otherwise than the subscrip-
tion made by said town in its corporate character; and any
subscription which may be made by tne county of Chester-
field, or by the township of which Manchester forms only a
part, shall be made in behalf of and charged exclusively against
that part of the said county, or that part of the township, as
the case may be, not embracing the corporate limits of said
town, in like manner as though such town did not constitute
a part of such county or such townsbip.

17. The board of commissioners named in this act alone, or
if others be appointed under the preceding section, the board
so constituted may, in their discretion, take subscriptions from
individuals for any amount of the capital stock not otherwise
raised, to be in like manner used also in reduction of the sub-
scription on behalf of said town of Manchester, and such indi-
viduals may, together, appoint commissioners in proportion to
the aggregate of their subscriptions aforesaid ; and the autho-
rities of the town, county, township, or city represented by said
commissioners respectively, may agree, severally or jointly, to
guarantee any loans made by or in behalf of said individuals,
or any of them, to effect their subscriptions and take from such
individuals such security on real estate, as may be agreed on,
to indemnify the corporation or corporations so guaranteeing
from loss. ,

18. The commissioners named in the first section of this act
shall alone, or other, if any other be associated with them an-
der the provisions of this act, together with such others, con-
tinue in office until the first day of May next succeeding one
year from the completion of the bridge authorized in this act,
or until their successors are respectively appointed, as herein-
after provided.

19. The trustees of the town of Manchester, or their succes-
sors in authority, and the county, city, or township, as the case
may be, and any individual subscribers subscribing under this
act, shall appoint, after one year from the completion of said
bridge, annually, in the month of January, or thereafter, the
number of commissioners they are respectively entitled to have
in said board, whose time of service shall commence from the
first day of May of each year, or for the unexpired time of one
year from the first day of May of each year (if such appoint-
ments be made after the first of May), and such commissioners,
so hereafter to be appointed, shall reside in the county, city, or
town, or township, as the case may be, of the respective cor-
porations they respectively represent; except that any com-
missioners which any individual subscribers are authorized to
appoint, may reside either in the city of Richmond, or the
county of Chesterfield, or the town of Manchester; but such
commissioners, elected on behalf of individual subscribers, shall
vacate their office by subsequent removal from the corporation
or township in which they resided when elected.

20. The commissioners acting under this act shall not be per-
sonally liable on any contract or undertaking made in pursu-
ance thereof, but the town, county, city, or township, or indi-
viduals they may represent, shall be respectively bound in
proportion to their respective unpaid subscriptions. The com-
pany may be sued by bill in equity in the chancery court of
the city of Richmond, and if subscriptions are made by parties
other than the town of Manchester, the corporations and indi-
viduals shall be made parties detendant, as well as the com-
missioners; but summons against individual subscribers may
be served by publication. The court shall ascertain which of
the said town, county, city, townships, or individuals, are par-
ticularly liable, and decree redress accordingly.

21. All meetings of the said commissioners shall be held in
the town of Manchester or city of Richmond. A majority of
the commissioners shall constitute a quorum for business. They
may prescribe the periods for regular meetings.

22. The bridge constructed under this act, together with
land and appurtenances acquired under section eleven of this
act, shall be bound, without any written mortgage, pledge, or
security other than this act, for any loans made to effect its
construction ; and the holders of all bonds or obligations issued
for this purpose, may enforce the lien hereby.created by suit
in equity in the chancery court of the city of Richmond, and
the said court may direct the lease or sale of said bridge, as
may be appropriate and proper, to secure a satisfaction of such
lien; and any such purchaser or lessee shall be substituted to
all the rights of the company to charge tolls, and all exemp-
tions from tolls shall, so far as necessary, cease in favor of the
purchaser or lessee, wholly or partially, as the court may direct.

23. The town, city, county, or township making loans under
this act, may, any or all of them, agree, any one or more, to
become liable as surety for the loans effected for the purposes
of this act by any one or more of them, such undertaking be-
tween parties so agreeing being reciprocal; but any pledge or
mortgage made of the town common aforesaid, shall be made
only in regard to the subscription in behalf of said town.

24. The construction of the bridge herein authorized, may
be commenced at any time within two years from the passage
of this act, and completed within five years thereafter.

25. The commissioners acting for each town, city, county, or
township, may supply any vacancy occurring in their respec-
tive members, before any election is authorized, or until suc-
cessors are appointed under this act.

26. The company hereby incorporated shall enjoy all the
rights conferred, and be subject to all the liabilities imposed,
on other bodies corporate by the statutes and laws of Virginia,
as far as applicable and consistent with this act. }

27. This act shall be in force from its passage, and shall be
subject to modification or repeal, at the pleasure of the gene-
ral assembly; and all acts or parts of acts in conflict with the
provisions of this act are hereby repealed.