Chap. 144.—An ACT to amend and re-enact sections 3. 4, 5 and 9 of an act
approved April 2, 1902, entitled: An act to incorporate the Manchester and
Richmond Free Bridge Company, and granting certain powers to said com-
pany, and the city councils of the cities of Richmond and Manchester for public
purposes.

Approved March 5, 1908.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That sections
three, four, five and nine of an act approved April second, nineteen
hundred and two, entitled “an act incorporating the Manchester and
Richmond Free Bridge company, and granting certain powers to said
company, and the city councils of the cities of Richmond and Man-
chester, for public purposes,” be amended and re-enacted so as to read
as follows:

§3. Said company is authorized to construct a free bridge for the use
of the public across James river from the southern to the northern
shore of said river, at or near the present Mayo bridge, running from
or near Hull street in Manchester to or near Fourteenth street in Rich-
mond, and all necessary approaches at either end of said bridge and for
that purpose shall have power to acquire by purchase or condemnation
the present Mayo bridge, now the property of the Mayo land and bridge
company, and may purchase or condemn the lands, easements, or privi-
leges necessary for said approaches, and the right of way for said bridge
over and across said river and the islands therein, so far as the same
may be necessary; and the Commonwealth by this act doth grant for
the purposes aforesaid the right to hold and occupy by said company any
portions of the river bed which may ‘be necessary therefor. If it shall
be necessary to condemn the Mayo bridge, or any lands, islands, ap-
proaches, easements, or rights of way for the purposes of constructing
and operating said bridge, the same shall be condemned by proceedings
taken and proceeded with in the hustings court of the city of Richmond,
in the manner prescribed for condemnation proceedings in chapter
forty-six of the Code of Virginia, except that for approaches to the
southern end of the bridge such condemnation proceedings shall be
taken and proceeded with in the corporation court of the city of
Manchester. The said bridge, being altogether for public uses, shall
so long as it continues subject to such uses, or be held by the said com-
pany, in no wise ever be subject to taxation for State, city or other
purposes.
§4. In order to carry out the provisions of this act, said company shall
have power to issue bonds sufficient to raise the funds necessary for the-
purposes of purchase or condemnation and construction of said bridge,
as hereinbefore provided; and the cities of Richmond and Manchester,
or either of them, are hereby authorized, jointly or severally, to guaran-
tee, wholly or in such amounts as they may agree, the punctual payment
of the interest and principal of said bonds when due. But said bonds,
when duly executed, shall be placed in the treasuries of said cities, each
city taking the bonds guaranteed by it—or one-half each, if jointly guar-
anteed—auntil sold ; and the proceeds thereof, shall be only checked out or
used for the purposes of this act, upon warrants drawn by the auditors
of said cities, upon vouchers properly approved and certified by said board
of commissioners. Said company shall, however, have power to raise funds
for the construction of said bridge, as well as for the acquisition of the
necessary site therefor, in such other ways as may be approved by the city
council of Manchester, and by the city council of the city of Richmond, if
it shall decide to co-operate in this enterprise, as hereinafter provided ;
and is expressly empowered, upon such approval being first had, to
mortgage both bridge and site for such purpose or purposes; and
in case of foreclosure or sale under such mortgage, the bridge shall pass,
discharged of its public character, with the right hereby conferred upon
the purchaser or purchasers to levy and take tolls thereon at discretion.

85. Said company shall have the right to charge for the use or occu-
pation of said bridge, by any and all transportation and transmission
companies, such sums as may, in the discretion of the board of com-
missioners, be necessary for the defraying in whole or in part, the costs
of the construction or purchase of said bridge and its site and ap-
proaches, and the maintenance and operation of the same, or may, with
the approval of the councils of the cities of Richmond and Manchester,
agree for a sum to be paid in cash, or acceptable marketable bonds, duly
secured by mortgages or deeds of trust, to grant to any of said com-
panies, the perpetual free use of said bridge. The revenue thus arising
shall, after first defraying the cost of maintenance, be applied by the said
company to the discharge of the interest accruing upon such indebted-
ness as may be created by it under this act, and from such balance as
may remain a sum equal to one per centum at least, of the
principal of such indebtedness, shall be annually set aside and
applied to the creation of a sinking fund, under such terms and regu-
lations as the councils of the cities of Richmond and Manchester, or
of the one alone acting, shall prescribe, for the discharge of such prin-
cipal at maturity. And whenever, in any year, there shall be found a
deficit in such revenues for the purposes here prescribed, then, unless
the councils of the two cities, or of the one alone acting, shall elect to
discharge such deficit out of their treasuries, the said company shall
have power to levy and collect tolls of the general public using such
bridge for the purpose of discharging the same, and from time to time
to renew such levy for like purpose as often as any such deficit shall
occur, discontinuing the same in all cases promptly, however, when any
such deficit has been discharged. When the indebtedness created under
this act shall have been fully discharged, the said bridge shall hecome
and forever remain free, subject only to the power herein conferred upon
said company to exact tolls and compensation, of transportation and
transmission companies using the same; and the net balance of the
revenues derived from these sources shall, after defraying the cost of
maintenance, thereafter be paid into the treasuries of the two cities an-
nually, in such proportions as they shall respectively become bound in
furtherance of this enterprise.

9. Proceedings under this act shall be commenced within two years
from the passage of this act, and the bridge herein authorized shall be
completed within three years from such commencement.