Chap. 96.—An ACT to authorize the city of Charlottesville to close certain
streets, to allow an overhead steel bridge over the lower end of Main street in
said city, to permit the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company to erect a new
passenger depot in said city, and to ascertain and pay damages, if any, result-
ing therefrom.

Approved March 10, 1904.

Whereas, it has been agreed by contract in writing between the Chesa-
peake and Ohio Railway Company and the city of Charlottesville, Vir-
ginia, that the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company shall erect a new

r depot, at a cost of not less than ten thousand dollars, on a
location within the corporate limits of said city, agreed to between said
parties: provided, certain changes can be made in certain of the streets
of said city of Charlottesville—to-wit: That Fifth street east, Sixth
street east, and Seventh street east (sometimes called the lower end of
Main street), in said city of Charlottesville, be closed and discontinued
where said streets intersect the right of way, tracks, and ground to be
occupied by the proposed structures of the said Chesapeake and Ohio
Railway Company; it being a condition of said contract that an over-
head steel highway bridge shall be by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
Company erected and maintained according to plans and specifications
which have been agreed to by said city of Charlottesville and the said
Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company across and over the tracks of the
said Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company in Seventh street east as
aforesaid (sometimes called the lower end of Main street) ; and it being
further agreed by said contract that the said Chesapeake and Ohio Rail-
way Company shall indemnify and save harmless the said city of Char-
lottesville from all damage of every sort resulting from the erection and
maintenance of said bridge, from the closing of said Fifth, Sixth, and
Seventh streets east, or any of them, and from the bridging of Seventh
street east as aforesaid, and from the erection of said passenger depot;
and,

Whereas, the council of the city of Charlottesville has applied for the
right to close the streets in question, and to cause the said bridge and
depot to be built as aforesaid, with a view to benefiting the public in-
terests; therefore,

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That the coun-
cil of the city of Charlottesville be, and is hereby, authorized to close and
discontinue Fifth, Sixth. and Seventh streets east, in said city of Char-
lottesville, where the said streets intersect the right of way, tracks, and
the ground. to be occupied by the proposed structures of the said Chesa-
peake and Ohio Railway Company, and to require the said Chesapeake
and Ohio Railway Company to erect and maintain an overhead steel
highway bridge according to the plans and svecifications which have been
agreed on by the said citv of Charlottesville and the Chesapeake and
Ohio Railway Company across and over the tracks of the said railway
company in Seventh street east (sometimes called the lower end of Main
street),-and to permit said Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company to
erect said passenger depot benoesiane to the contract aforesaid between
the parties. .

2. Before proceeding to close the said streets, however, the council of
the city of Charlottesville shall, if need be, take steps to ascertain and
adjust any damages sustained bv the owners of private property bv rea-
son of the closing of the said streets, or any of them, or the erection of
said bridge as aforesaid, or the erection of said passenger depot. govern-
ing itself in these respects by an act of the general assemblv of Virginia,
entitled “an act concerning the exercise of the power of eminent do-
main,” approved January eighteenth, nineteen hundred and four, and
treating the ascertainment of damages as though it were the taking of

property.
3. The contract aforesaid, dated the twenty-ninth day of February,
nineteen hundred and four, between the said Chesapeake and Ohio Rail-
way Company and the city of Charlottesville, is hereby ratified and ap-
proved, and no condemnation proceedings need be had by said city, so
far as said railway company is concerned, in the event that the right
reserved by said contract on the part of the city as to the future construc-
tion of subway or subways is exrecised.

4. The matter herein referred to being one of emergency, this act shall
be in force from its passage.