Youghiogheny Bridge

Citations

• 182 Pa. 618
• 38 A. 478
• 1897 Pa. LEXIS 851

Syllabus

<p>Bridges — County bridge — Boroughs—Highways—Act of June 6, 1836.</p> <p>The Act of June 6,1836, P. L. 551, by its express words, refers to roads and highways crossed by rivers and creeks between adjoining townships, and, while a liberal interpretation of the act will authorize the bridging of a highway between two adjoining boroughs crossed by a river, yet jurisdiction of the court of quarter sessions over highways of, cities and boroughs was expressly withheld in the act: Osage St., 90 Pa. Ill; and there is no intimation of a jurisdiction in this particular to authorize the erection of county bridges so as to prolong or extend the street of a borough; but, at the inception of the proceeding in the court of quarter sessions to obtain such bridge, and as its very base, there must exist, in a reasonable sense, and within the sense of the act, an actual highway to be bridged, not one existing in the imagination, or on paper.</p> <p>Corporation bridges — County bridges — Act of May 8, 1876.</p> <p>Where a corporation owns and operates a good substantial bridge, of sufficient capacity, crossing a river on a highway, and connecting two boroughs, which becomes burdensome, the Act of May 8, 1876, P. L. 131, was expressly intended for the relief of the traveling public and the protection of the stockholders of the bridge company, and no court ought to sanction a proceeding to build another expensive bridge, not three hundred feet distant, and thus to practically confiscate the property of the corporation.</p>