IN REGARD TO SURVEY.

In your letter of March 17 I am directed to report what survey or examination is, in my judgment, necessary for the purpose of the act, with a project and estimate of the cost of the same.

I have the honor to report that in order to determine the height of the piers from the rock, length of the bridge, length of the draw (if neces sary), and to furnish such plans and specifications as may be made a basis for an advertisement for contract, it will be necessary to employ a party for fifteen days at a cost of $10 per day, or $150 in all.

SECOND SECTION.

This section provides for the construction of a bridge as a substitute for the bridge proposed in section first, and is as follows:

That for the purpose of establishing a free bridge, and in lieu of erecting the bridge provided for in the preceding section, the Secretary of War may, in his discretion, purchase the Aqueduct Bridge, now crossing the Potomac River at Georgetown.

First proviso.

Provided, Said bridge, with all the appurtenances, rights, and franchises connected therewith, including piers and real estate for abutments and approaches, cau be purchased for a sum not exceeding eighty-five thousand dollars, which sum, or so much thereof as may be necessary, may be paid out of the money appropriated by this act.

Second proviso.

Provided further, That a good and sufficient title thereto can be secured to the United States, to be approved by the Attorney-General of the United States.

Third proviso.

It is further provided, That the Alexandria Canal Company, or its present lessees, shall have the right to maintain at their own cost and expense, a canal aqueduct of the same width and depth as the one now in use, and to attach it to or suspend it from said bridge; and whenever a permanent bridge shall be erected upon said site the same shall be of sufficient strength to sustain the weight of such canal aqueduct ; but the construction, attachment, and maintenance of such aqueduct shall be such as the Secretary of War may determine, and shall be without cost or liability to the United States or the District of Columbia.

Fourth proviso.

And it is further provided, That if. upon the erection of such permanent bridge, the said canal company, or their present lessees, shall neglect or refuse to reconstruct, secure, and attach the said aqueduct at their own expense, or if at any time, for the space of six months, they shall fail to use such aqueduct for the purpose of a canal, or fail to keep the same in good condition and repair, or if at any time they shall use the same for other than canal purposes, then all rights of said canal company, its lessees, or assigns, in said bridge and property, shall cease and determine, and the said aqueduct shall be detached and removed by the Secretary of War.

The Aqueduct Bridge over the Potomac at Georgetown is owned by the Alexandria Canal Company, who leased it to Phillip Quigley, of the State of Delaware, Henry H. Wells and W. W. Dungan, of the city of Alexandria, in the State of Virginia, for a term of ninety-nine years, in a lease bearing date May 16, 1866.

In order to secure a good and sufficient title to the bridge and piers it will be necessary for the canal company to unite with the lessees in making out a title.

Immediately upon the receipt of your letter of March 17, an interview was had with Mr. W. W. Dungan, one of the lessees, during which his

attention was called to this section of the act, and he was requested to ascertain whether the lessees were willing to unite with the Alexandria Canal Company in transferring to the United States a perfect title to the bridge and its approaches.

It was not until May 18 that Mr. Dungan presented the following letter addressed to him by the secretary of the Alexandria Canal Company: ALEXANDRIA, VA., May 17, 1881.

DEAR SIR: At an adjourned meeting of Alexandria Canal Company, the following resolutions were adopted:

Resolved, That the stockholders of the Alexandria Canal Company refuse to accept the act of Congress, approved February 23, 1881, entitled "An act to authorize the construction of a bridge over the Potomac River at or near Georgetown, in the District of Columbia, and for other purposes."

Resolved, That the secretary be ordered to notify the lessees of the above.

Very respectfully,

W. W. DUNGAN, Esq.,

L. E. UHLER,

Secretary of Alexandria Canal Co.

Secretary and Treasurer Alexandria Canal, Railroad, and Bridge Company.

This resolution would seem to close further consideration of the purchase of the Aqueduct Bridge over the Potomac at Georgetown. I would add that the condition prescribed in the section last quoted (section second) that the bridge to be built upon the piers of the aqueduct shall be of sufficient strength to sustain the weight of such canal aqueduct, would make the probable cost of said structure, excluding the sum to be paid to the Alexandria Canal Company, exceed the amount of the appropriation by from $60,000 to $80,000. But there is still another and very important fact which should be considered in connection with the offer of the government to purchase the title to this bridge. It is found in the right of the government as a stockholder in the Alexandria Canal Company.

By an act of Congress of March 3, 1837, the Secretary of the Treasury was authorized to loan $300,000 to the canal company in order to complete the canal to Alexandria, to secure the payment of which loan the corporate authorities of Alexandria were required to deposit the stock held by them in said canal company in the hands of the Secretary of the Treasury, the same to be transferred by proper instruments of conveyance, and to be held by said Secretary in trust, and to be sold under certain circumstances, which stock said authorities failed to transfer and deposit. In 1866 a lease was entered into by the president of the canal company by the terms of which all of the canal and its works were leased for a period of ninety-nine years, the canal company receiving the nominal consideration of $1,000 per annum, or one twelfth of one per cent. upon the original investment. This lease, it is claimed, the president of the canal company was duly authorized and directed to make by a vote of a majority of the stockholders of the company, and particularly so authorized and directed by the corporate authorities of the city of Alexandria; said authorities voting upon and representing the very stock which was pledged to the Secretary of the Treasury for the loan of $300,000 advanced as already stated.

The lessees, after entering into possession of the canal and works, restored the aqueduct to its original use, but provided a roadway for travel across the bridge by making a deck or floor over the aqueduct trunk, excepting at the Virginia end of the bridge, where a short trestle bridge, crossing the canal, was constructed. The entire expenditure upon the new work required for the roadway above described is estimated by competent persons not to have exceeded $25,000.

During the war the bridge was used by the United States military authorities as a road bridge, and it continued to be used until some time in the year 1866 or 1867.

By an act of Congress of July 27, 1868, the Aqueduct Bridge was declared a lawful structure, and authority was granted to the lessees to fix the rates of tolls-not to exceed certain rates-for crossing said bridge, the power to amend and repeal the act being expressly reserved to Congress.

I respectfully submit the following memoranda of enactments relating to the aqueduct of the Alexandria Canal Company:

Act of Congress regulating the collection of duties on imports and tonnage, approved March 2, 1799. (Statutes at Large, volume 1, page 627.)

Act of Congress incorporating the Alexandria Canal Company, approved May 26, 1830. (Statutes at Large, volume 6, page 419; 8 Bioren and Duane.)

Act of Congress, donating $100,000 to the Alexandria Canal Company, approved June 25, 1832. (Statutes at Large, volume 6, page 496.) Act of Congress providing for certain harbors, and for the removal of obstructions in and at the mouth of certain rivers, and for other purposes, during the year 1837, approved March 3, 1837. (Statutes at Large, volume 5, page 187.)

Document No. 47, volume 2. Executive documents. House of Representatives, 24th Congress, 2d session.

Major Turnbull's report, House Document No. 459, 25th Congress, 2d session, page 3.

Ordinances of Alexandria, authorizing subscriptions to stock of the Alexandria Canal Company, as follows:

Compact between Maryland and Virginia, 12 Hening's Statutes at Large, page 50.

Memorial from corporation of Alexandria, praying assistance. Presented December 27, 1836. Referred to Committee on the District of Columbia. Favorably reported on February 22, 1837. See volume 2, Reports, No. 255, House of Representatives, 24th Congress, 2d session. This inemorial, after reciting the injustice done the city of Alexandria by introducing the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal within Georgetown and Washington City, when it should have had its terminus placed where it first met tide-water, the efforts of Alexandria to build the Alexandria Canal, and the relief afforded in the matter of the "Holland Dam" to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal stockholders, by the United States, concludes thus:

They therefore earnestly and respectfully pray that Congress may either accept a transfer of their stock in this branch of the canal, upon the same terms and conditions as they have accepted that in the main stem of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, or that upon the pledge of their own stock, or in such other way as may seem most just and equitable, such sum may be advanced to them as will enable them to complete this undertaking.

The above memorial was adopted by "The Common Council of Alexandria" on the 22d of December, 1836, and certainly was the predicate of the act of Congress of 3d March, 1837 (V. 190), "advancing" $300,000 upon a deposit to be made of stock.

The act May 20, 1836 (V. 32), prescribes the "terms and conditions" upon which the above "advance" was to be made, and provides that—

The Secretary of the Treasury may, at such time, within ten years, as may be most favorable for the sale of said stock, dispose thereof at public sale to reimburse the United States its advance.

Since, as a matter of fact, the deposit of stock was never made, the concluding prayer of the "memorial" will certainly operate as an equitable assignment of the stock, the "advance" having been made by the United States.

From what time the period of "ten years" is to be computed, whether, if no deposit has yet been made, limitation has yet begun to run, whether the act providing that the Secretary of the Treasury "may" sell the bonds, and giving him discretion to select the most "favorable time," is to be considered "mandatory" or "discretionary" only, the act not in terms prohibiting performance after the "ten years," or whether, if it be held that the limitation of time within which the Secretary can act has elapsed, the courts are not still open to proceedings to be taken by the United States to enforce the lien acquired by the "advance,” as the tendered pledge of stock, are questions for the law-officers of the United States and which must be decided before it can be discovered who is the owner of the Alexandria Canal and Aqueduct (subject to the lease to Dungan, Wells, and Quigley).

THIRD SECTION.

And the Secretary of War is further authorized, in his discretion, in the event of said purchase, to repair the wooden bridge now on said piers, and for that purpose is authorized to expend, of the moneys hereinbefore appropriated, a sum not exceeding ten thousand dollars.

This section is precluded from comment by reason of the Alexandria Canal Company refusing to sell the bridge, as stated in comments upon section second.

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS.

From the foregoing statements, comments, laws, and facts, it is inferred that the Secretary of War can select the site for the bridge; and the site of the "Three Sisters" is recommended to his consideration, for the following reasons: As being the only locality at which a bridge can be constructed for the sum of money appropriated by Congress; also as being equal, if not superior, to the other sites mentioned, in general convenience of access; and, also, for the reason that the site of the aqueduct is precluded from consideration by the resolution of the Alexandria Canal Company, and that the further consideration of the rights of the United States as a shareholder in the Alexandria Canal Company, will give rise to a delay of indefinite duration, which will result in serious injury to the interests of the farmers and citizens who desire and have petitioned for a free bridge.

The relation of the United States to the Alexandria Canal Company and lessees and the action which should be taken, may be briefly stated as follows: The lessees of the Alexandria Canal Company are now willing to grant the right to use the bridge and piers of the aqueduct for the unexpired period of their lease, but the legal right to make this grant depended upon the acquiesence of the United States in the validity of the lease, since they were not consulted in framing the lease under which they (the lessees) propose to act.

The Alexaudria Canal Company, to whom the piers and aqueduct

will revert, according to the terms of the lease, at the end of ninetynine years, at an annual meeting, May 16, 1881, of the stockholders, the United States not being represented, refused their consent to the sale of the Aqueduct Bridge, but at that meeting the city of Alexandria voted on 2,280 shares which belonged to the United States. The United States in fact owns 3,000 shares of the 6,800 shares, having an absolute right to vote upon whatever action shall be taken in regard to the use of the piers for bridge purposes. In order to secure its right as stockholder the United States should demand the delivery of the scrip of its stock to the proper officer, and request that a special meeting of the Alexandria Canal Company be at once called, at which meeting they should be represented by proxy. Such action and representation is not unusual. For many years the United States was represented by proxy at the meetings of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company.

PAPERS ACCOMPANYING THIS REPORT.

I. Act of March 3, 1837, providing for the "advance" of $300,000 to the Alexandria Canal Company on the transfer of stock.

II. Lease to Philip Quigley, H. H. Wells, and W. W. Dungan (for ninety-nine years, from 1866) of the Alexandria Canal and the aqueduct over the Potomac, at Georgetown, D. C.

III. Letter from W. W. Dungan, secretary Alexandria Canal, Railroad and Bridge Company, stating that the lessees are willing for the government to have the use of the piers of the Aqueduct Bridge, but that the Alexandria Canal Company, at its adjourned meeting, resolved not to give its consent.

The petition of the company upon which the $300,000 "advance" was made, and also the resolution of the company, dated May 16, 1881, are given in the body of the report, in part only.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

S. T. ABERT, United States Civil Engineer.

The CHIEF OF ENGINEERS, U. S. A.

REPORT OF MR. S. T. ABERT, UNITED STATES CIVIL ENGINEER, OF NOVEMBER 15, 1881.

UNITED STATES ENGINEER OFFICE,

Washington, D. C., November 15, 1881. GENERAL: I have the honor to submit the following report upon the proposals for the construction of afree bridge across the Potomac River, near Georgetown, D. C., opened on Saturday, October 29, 1881, in accordance with the act of Congress, approved February 23, 1881.

A copy of the advertisement and general specifications under which the proposals were invited is herewith inclosed (Inclosure No. 1), the act of February 23, 1881, being printed therewith for the information of bidders. The specifications call for a bridge built upon piers and abutments of masonry founded upon solid rock, the superstructure to be of iron, with a double roadway, and two footways. Proposals were invi ted for the construction of such a bridge at two sites:

1. At a point about 500 feet above the Aqueduct Bridge, and

2. At a point near the "Three Sisters," about 3,100 feet above the Aqueduct Bridge.

Three prices were to be submitted for each site: (1) for piers and abut