City of Buffalo v. Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railway Co.

In 1882 the defendants constructed a through truss, two-span, double-track, fixed bridge across Buffalo river, having 14 feet clearance above mean water level, about 800 feet, southwest of Abbott road in the city of Buffalo, under a franchise duly granted by the plaintiff which did not specify any details for such bridge. In 1884, by chapter 201 of the laws of that year, the Legislature, by amendment to plaintiff’s charter, enacted: “ Buffalo' river within the city is a public highway, but any bridge heretofore built over the same and any swing or draw bridge hereafter built over the same…