662 CORPORATIONS. [ART. 23

or any navigable water, the said company shall file with the board of
public works the plan of the bridge and other fixtures for crossing such
canal or navigable water, designating the place of crossing; and if the
said board shall approve of such plan, it shall notify such company in
writing, of such approval; but if the said board shall disapprove such
plan, or fail to approve the same within twenty days from the filing
thereof, then it shall be lawful for such company to apply to the circuit
court, or any judge thereof in vacation; and upon reasonable notice
being given to the members of the board of public works, said court or
judge shall, upon good cause shown, appoint a competent, disinterested
engineer, not a resident of any county through which said road passes,
to examine such crossing and to prescribe the plan and condition thereof,
so as not to impede navigation; and such engineer shall, within twenty
days from his appointment, make his return to the circuit court for the
county where such crossing is to be made, subject to exception by either
party; and thereupon the court shall, at the next term after the filing of
said return proceed to examine the same, and unless good cause is shown
shall approve and confirm the same, and such order of confirmation
shall be sufficient authority for the erection., use and occupancy of
such bridge in accordance with such plan; provided, that no railroad
company shall be authorized to construct any permanent bridge over
any canal of this State, which shall be less than twelve feet in the
clear above the top water-line of said canal, and the piers and abut-
ments of such bridge shall be placed so as not in any manner to contract
the width of the canal, or interfere with free passage on the towing-
path.

The purpose of this section was not to grant the power to railway compa-
nies Incorporated under this article to bridge navigable streams, but to regu-
late the method of constructing bridges by companies having the right to
build them. This section construed in connection with section 131—see notes
thereto. Dundalk, etc., Co. v. Governor Smith, 97 Md. 178.

Where the property of a canal company is being administered by a court
of equity, no appeal lies from an order of that court granting leave to a rail-
road company to erect a proposed bridge subject to the payment of such
damages as the canal company might thereby sustain. Chesapeake, etc.,
Canal Co. v. Western Md. E. R. Co., 99 Md. 572.
See sec. 131.

1904, art. 265. 1888, art. 23, sec. 178. 1876, ch. 242, sec. 22.
1890, ch. 553.

283. It shall be lawful for any railroad company heretofore or
hereafter incorporated under the laws of this State to consolidate with
any other railroad company incorporated under the laws of this or
any other State, or of the United States, whose railroad within or with-
out this State shall connect with or form a continuous line with the
railroad of the company so consolidating upon, such terms as may be
agreed upon; provided, however, that the agreement for such consolida-
tion shall be submitted to the stockholders of the railroad company
incorporated under the laws of this State at a special meeting called for
considering the same, and shall be sanctioned by the holders of a
majority of the stock of such company, and if sanctioned at such meet-