The jurisdiction or control of the Georgetown Bridge, to be known as the Francis Scott Key Bridge, across the Potomac River and approaches shall be under the Mayor of the District of Columbia. The said bridge shall be used as a highway for traffic, and for gas and water mains, power, telegraph and telephone wires or cables, and interurban railroads upon such conditions and for such compensation as may from time to time be prescribed by the Secretary of the Army; provided, that the Washington and Old Dominion Railway, using the Aqueduct Bridge on May 18, 1916, shall be permitted, with the approval of the Secretary of the Army, to change its location so as to cross with a double track the new bridge and approaches herein provided for, and to connect its railway, located in Arlington County, Virginia, and in the District of Columbia, with the tracks of said new bridge; and that all plans for such change are to be approved by the Secretary of the Army; and provided further, that a standard system of electric propulsion shall be installed by said railway on said new bridge, and no dynamo furnishing power to this portion of the road of said railway shall be in any manner connected with the ground, and that the cost of paving and maintaining in good condition between the tracks and 2 feet outside thereof shall be paid by said railway; and provided further, that any electric railway shall have the right to use said new bridge and the double track above described upon terms determined by the Secretary of the Army, who is hereby authorized and directed to hear the interested parties and to fix the terms of joint trackage.

(May 18, 1916, 39 Stat. 163, ch. 127, § 5; Feb. 28, 1923, 42 Stat. 1338, ch. 148, § 1; June 7, 1926, 44 Stat. 697, ch. 480, § 1.)

1981 Ed., § 7-511.

1973 Ed., § 7-511.

Public utilities, multiple company use of utility infrastructures, see § 34-1102.

Arlington County was substituted for Alexandria County, in the first proviso of the second sentence of this section, to update terminology.

This section originated at a time when local government powers were delegated to a Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia (see Acts Relating to the Establishment of the District of Columbia and its Various Forms of Governmental Organization in Volume 1). Section 401 of Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1967 (see Reorganization Plans in Volume 1) transferred all of the functions of the Board of Commissioners under this section to a single Commissioner. The District of Columbia Self-Government and Governmental Reorganization Act, 87 Stat. 818, § 711 ( D.C. Code, § 1-207.11), abolished the District of Columbia Council and the Office of Commissioner of the District of Columbia. These branches of government were replaced by the Council of the District of Columbia and the Office of Mayor of the District of Columbia, respectively. Accordingly, and also pursuant to § 714(a) of such Act ( D.C. Code, § 1-207.14(a)), appropriate changes in terminology were made in this section.