Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 4.djvu/568



and are now exclusive owners of all the stock of the Washington Canal Company, and are desirous that the entire property, rights, privileges, and immunities of the said company, be vested in them for the use and benefit of the said city: Therefore

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all the right, title, interest, property, and estate, either in law or equity, of the Washington Canal Company be, and the same are hereby, vested in the said mayor, aldermen, and common council, for the use aforesaid; and that the said mayor, aldermen, and common councilmen, shall have full power and authority to take possession of the canal and works of the said company, and to hold, use, occupy, and repair the same, from time to time, as occasion may require, and as to them shall seem expedient: Provided, That the said canal shall be finished and completed, of the breadth and depth, and in the manner, and within the time hereinafter prescribed, and not otherwise.

. And be it further enacted, That the said canal shall be finished in such manner that the width thereof, from the Seventeenth street west to Sixth street west, at the water line, shall be one hundred and fifty feet; from Sixth street west to B street south, eighty feet, at the water line; from B street south to the basin at the Virginia avenue, sixty feet, at the water line; from said basin to L street south, forty-five feet, at the water line; from L street south to N street south, forty feet, at the water line; and from L street south to the channel of the eastern branch, one hundred and twenty feet, at the water line; and the said canal, throughout its whole length and breadth aforesaid, shall have a depth of at least four feet water at all times. There shall also be made by the said mayor, aldermen, and common councilmen, three basins attached to the said canal, which shall be by them kept in repair, of the following dimensions, that is to say: one at the western termination of the said canal, at least one hundred and fifty feet wide, and five thousand five hundred and forty-five feet long; one at the Eastern branch, at the eastern termination of the said canal, of at least one hundred and twenty feet in width and six hundred and ninety feet in length; and one at the Virginia avenue, of at least eighty feet in width, one hundred feet in length; each of which basins shall, at all times, have, throughout its length and width, a depth of water equal to that hereby required in the said canal. And the sides of the said canal and basins shall be secured by walls of stone or other materials, where necessary, of sufficient strength and height to allow the use of steam vessels therein; all which work hereby required to be done to complete the said canal and basins, shall be done and finished in the manner aforesaid by the first day of March, in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-three, or in default thereof, this act, and all the rights and privileges thereby granted, shall cease and determine.

. And be it further enacted, That all such provisions in any former law, as required the Washington Canal Company to raise, drain, or improve the low or wet grounds along or near the said canal, shall remain in full force, and be obligatory on the said mayor, aldermen, and common council: Provided, That no funds for that purpose shall be raised by lottery.

. And be it further enacted, That for and in consideration of the expenses which have been, and will be, incurred in finishing the said canal and basins, and of securing the sides thereof, and of the expenses of erecting and maintaining locks, and of completing the whole work according to the provisions of this act, and of keeping the same in repair, including the expense of draining, or otherwise improving or drying the low and wet grounds along and near the said canal, the said mayor, aldermen, and common council, are hereby authorized to collect, on all articles and materials landed on each side of the canal and basins,