OLD LYON BROOK VIADUCT, NEW YORK ONTARIO AND WESTERN RAILWAY. LENGTH, 820 FEET; MAXIMUM HEIGHT OF TOWERS, 150 FEET; TWENTYFOUR SPANS, 30 FEET EACH; ONE SPAN, 100 FEET; BUILT 1869.

NEW LYON BROOK VIADUCT, NEW YORK, ONTARIO AND WESTERN RAILWAY. THREE SPANS, 80 FEET EACH; FOUR SPANS, 60

FEET EACH; TWO SPANS, 50 FEET EACH: EIGHT SPANS. 30 FEET EACH: HEIGHT, 150 FEET: BUILT OF STEEL IN 1894.

Grade Crossings.

During the year sixty-four persons were killed and eighty injured at grade crossings, a decrease of thirty in the number killed and fifteen in the number injured, as compared with the preceding year. This is an indication that the persistent efforts of this Board in the direction of greater security at grade crossings are producing beneficial effects.

The enactment of a comprehensive statute for the gradual abolition of all grade crossings in the State under direction of some constituted authority, and the prevention of the establishment of additional grade crossings, either in the construction of new railroads or the laying out of new highways, has been annually recommended in the reports of this Board to the Legislature since the creation of the Board of Railroad Commissioners, and there has been practically no modification of the views expressed by the various members of this Commission regarding either the necessity for such a law or the general method to be employed to carry the proposed reform into effect. While the Board has persistently urged legislation upon this subject, last year was the first occasion when a bill prepared by the Board and covering the entire subject was presented to the Legislature for its consideration. The bill was introduced in both Senate and Assembly by the chairmen of the respective railroad committees of the two houses, and several joint hearings were had which were participated in by the members of the Board and by representatives of the various railroad companies of the State. There were no differences of opinion regarding the necessity for the proposed law, and the only objection presented by the representatives of the various railroad companies was as to the proportion of expense to be paid by the railroads in the change of existing grade crossings.

With respect to this phase of the subject, the recommendations heretofore made and the bill itself, reproduced elsewhere in this volume, fairly represent the present views of the Board. The slight difference of opinion between the members of the