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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Sea level defines Empire
From: Lu Abel
Date: 2015 Apr 11, 18:13 +0000
The Southern Pacific immediately sued, claiming they had exclusive rights to providing railroad access to the port.
From: Lu Abel
Date: 2015 Apr 11, 18:13 +0000
At the risk of getting a bit off-topic, there's an interesting bit about "land claim" in the history of the port of Oakland, California (which, for the record, many years ago replaced San Francisco as the primary cargo port in northern California and is now the fourth-largest cargo port in the US)
When the port was still a struggling backwater in the late 19th century, the city granted the Southern Pacific railroad exclusive rights to serve the port. The decision was soon regretted as the railroad used its monopoly to charge outrageous rates for freight.
The Western Pacific railroad was the SP's bitter rival. One night a construction crew drove WP tracks across the SP's tracks and onto tracks that they had built on a landfill extension of the port.
The Southern Pacific immediately sued, claiming they had exclusive rights to providing railroad access to the port.
The court disagreed and dismissed the suit. They found that only dry land that existed at the time the agreement was signed was covered by it. The court said the landfill was not covered by the SP's agreement and the railroad therefore did not have exclusive rights to provide freight service to the filled area!
Even today you can see the two separate railroad yards at the Port.
From: Lu Abel <NoReply_LuAbel@fer3.com>
To: luabel@ymail.com
Sent: Thursday, April 9, 2015 10:56 PM
Subject: [NavList] Re: Sea level defines Empire
But if I "landfill" a tidal reef, can I claim "dry land" for EEZ purposes??