The San Francisco call., 1896-03-21


to report to the local engineers office as L
had done to Washington, and l did SO.
My plans are there, and l have no doubt
that they will be ultimately adopted.
There is no need for two bridges. One
modern steel structure, with spans OF the
width ordered on all Government business,
can be made to accommodate more trains,
teams and streetcars than half dozen
such wooden bridges as the two wrecks
that are now obstructing the estuary.
"As near as 1 can locate the proper
place for an ample bridge with all modern
appliances would be about thousand feet
east of the Alice-street draw. This would
bring it about at the foot of Oak street.
This is the natural place for it as well as
the most beneficial. AT that point the
estuary is narrowest, and vessels which
sail down the harbor could have the ad-
vantage of making long tacks on either
side and of shooting through the bridge at
the most favorable point. From Oak
street across to Alameda there is streak of
hardpan across the estuary and this would
enable bridge to be constructed at about
half the cost of building at the location OF
the present bridges, where hardpan is
about twenty feet further down. Then,
again, at the point l mention bridge
would almost connect the centers OF both
Oakland and Alameda.
Another advantage is that the distance
from the end of Oak street to what would
be the first pier of the bridge is about 1900
feet. To make an incline of thirty feet in
this distance would not be felt by teams or
passengers and would enable them to cross
on the upper roadway, leaving the lower
track exclusively for teams and electric
cars.
''Of course this plan will not be favor
able to the railroad company, because it
will cause them some expense. The only
change in their route will be that they
will have to lay three blocks of track on
either side of the estuary to make the
crossing at Oak street. The expense will
not be very heavy for the bridge, as the
county, the Southern Pacific and the elec-
tric-road company will all have to shoul-
der the burden.
This matt is one of supreme i'm
portance and these views are what I have
already expressed to Washington and
what have been requested to present to
Colonel Sutter. From what know / be-
lieve the War Department has already
decided on its course and the usual by
play of the railroad will not avail this
time"
Some time ago the Supervisors asked for
and received an opinion from Chief Deputy
District Attorney Church with regard to
their jurisdiction over the wagon and rail
bridge over the estuary at Webster street.
/ j. I,
the question was raised that the structure
in question was an obstruction to naviga-
ton and that both it and the Alice-street
bridge should be supplanted by one large
modern structure with a draw wide
enough to accommodate the largest sea-
going vessels.
Mr.. Church made an elaborate report, in
which he held that nobody, not even the
Secretary of War of the United States, has
any authority over the Webster-street
bridge save the Supervisors of Alameda,
unless an act of Congress should be passed
on the subject specifically referring to the
bridge in question and the estuary of San
Antonio, aud no such act, he claimed, had
ever been passed. This opinion was for
warded to the representative of the Secre-
tary of War on the coast, namely, Colonel
Charles r. Sutter, colonel of engineers, q.
S. A, who has succeeded Colonel Mendell
and whose Office is at San Francisco.
The document, it is presumed. was duly
forwarded to Secretary of War Lamont,
and nothing was heard of the matter
until this morning, when the summons
were received by the Mayor and the
County Clerk as representatives of the
Supervisors. 1t is evident that the Secre-
tary of War differs radically with the
reasoning and facts contained in the Dis
trict Attorneys opinion, because the prin-
cipaI point on the above summons is radi-
cally opposed to the view in the premises
of the District Attorney, the latter hold
ing that the law of 1890, which Colonel
Sutter refers to, had been declared uncon-
stitutional.