Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 6.djvu/797

 HATCH V. WALLAMET BRIDGE 00. 785 �them, standing where they are, be regarded as a nuisance and have to be removed? Now, the fact that you put a bridge upon them does not render them any the less an ob- struction, but more so. Located, as it is, right in the midst of the harbor, where vessels are required to move constantly from place to place, without a passage, except at the single point of this draw, the bridge will be a serions obstruction to navigation in the harbor even if the draw was sufficient for the passage of vessels up and down the stream. The act of congress does not limit the free navigation of the river to a particular part or channel, but it declares the whole river a free and common highway to the fuU extent of its capability of navigation. A bridge may not be a material obstruction to the navigation of a river, if erected at a point where ves- sels simply pass up and down the channel on their way to and from a port. But, in the case of a harbor like this, the location, surroundings, and circumstances must be considered, and they may require that no part of it be obstructed or closed to navigation. In this view of the matter I think that any bridge in this harbor would necessarily be such an ob- struction to its navigation as to require the consent of con- gress to justify it. �This place is a commercial eenter — the second port ip im- portance on the Pacific coast — mainly because ocean vessels of a large size can come to its docks. Therefore it is a serious question whether the people of Portland or the state of Oregon can afford to allow a bridge to be built in the midst of this harbor, at a point where ships must congregate, and thereby create such an obstruction therein as may, and prob- ably will, turn the cominerce of the city in other channels. This harbor is not large, and when the shipping here is much increased, as it doubtless will be with the growth of the coun- try and the place, there will be no room to spare in it. Ships often remain in the harbor of San Francisco three or four months waiting employment. But they could not afford to incur the expense of lying at the docks ail this time. They pay wharfage a few days, while at the docks discharging or �taking in cargo, and ii! the mean time draw out into the v.6,no.8— .50 ��� �