St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-11-12
BREDGING THE TRACKS.
The First Step &nccessfuI-.PrOud
Day for the Attorney and En-

The First Step $uccessfuI-.PrOud
Day for the Attorney and En-
Sineer.
Judge Rea yesterday signed the allow
ance of an alternative writ of mandamus
on the application of City Attorney Cross.
commanding the st. Paul, Minneapolis 4
Manitoba Railway company. and the Min
neapolis & st. Louis Railway company to
sink their tracks at Washington avenue,
Third, Fourth and Fifth streets north. from
four to ten feet, and Immediately COM
mence to construct iron bridges over them
at Washington avenue Third street. Fourth
street md Fifth street, and build APP
breaches to said bridges according to the
plans prepared by City Engineer Rnker,
and adopted by the city council, Oct. Is,
1886, or to show cause on Nov. q, 1886.
WHY they should not execute the command
of the count
The plans of all the bridges were shown
to Vice President Truesdell. of the St.
Louis road. and to President Hill. of the
Manitoba road. on Wednesday, and formal
demands were made of them by City At.
torney Cross and City Engineer Rinker to
construct them. MI. TrueSdell expressed
himself as pleased with the plans generally,
but said there were legal questions to be
settled between his company and the city
as to who should pay for the approaches.
as he claims that his company has a con-
tract with the city that the city shall build
all of the approaches to the bridges over
his road. and that the company shall build
the bridges. and that if the courts compel
his road to build the bridges, and that if
the courts compel his road to build the ap-
proacheS. he has an equitable demand on
the Man toba road TO pay its share of the
cost of the approaches. and he also claims
that the courts will not compel his road to
sink the tracks in order to make a lower
grade and easier ascent and descent over
the bridges for the public.
Mr.. Hill. while he could not accept the
plans in all their details, expressed himself
as very much pleased with the engineers
plans. and said that he was ready to sink
his tracks and build his bridges at once,
provided some few unimportant mOdifca-
tions of the plans could be made, but as the
time was getting short to bring the cases
into the December term of court the city
attorney was compelled to bring
both cases at once and leave it to the
court to decide the question between the
companies and the city and the questions
between the companies themselves. The
CITY engineer may be congratulated that he
has devised plans that were generally so
acceptable to Mr.. Truesdell and Mr.. Hill
personally. Whatever legal obligations
there may be to their accepting them at
once it is to be hoped if the companies
cannot settle their differences among them
selves. that speedy trial and determine
ton of them may be had at the December
term of the court. and that the people OF
North Minneapolis may before another fall
enjoy the benefits of the bridges. 1t shows
the growth of the city, as well as the law
delay. in the fact that when City Attorney
Cross commenced the first mandamus suits
AGAINST the companies in July. 1884. he had
one allegation that the city then contained
a population of about 100000 and like
allegation in his present compliant alleges
that there are now about $50, 900 people IN
the city.
Wants Big Damages.