after stating the case, delivered the opinion of the court.
This case involves the power of a State to regulate tolls upon a bridge connecting it with another State, without the assent of Congress, and without the concurrence of such other State in the proposed tariff.
' The right of the Commonwealth of Kentucky to prescribe a schedule of charges in this instance is contested, not only upon the ground that such regulation is an interference with interstate commerce, but upon the further ground that it impairs the obligation of the. contract contained in the original charter of the company.
The power of Congress over commerce between the States and the corresponding power of individual States over such commerce have been the subject of such frequent adjudication in this court, and the relative powers of Congress and the States with, respect thereto are so well defined, that each case, as it arises, must be determined upon principles already settled, as falling on one side or the other of the line of demarcation between the powers belonging exclusively to Congress, and those in which the action of the State may be concurrent. The adjudications of this court with respect to the power of the States over the general subject of commerce are divisible into three classes. First, those in which the power of the State is exclusive; second, those in which the States may act in the absence of legislation by Congress; third, those in which the action of Congress is exclusive and the States cannot interfere at all.
The
first
class, including all those wherein the States have plenary power, and Congress has no right to interfere, concern the strictly internal commerce of the State, and while the regulations of the State may affect interstate commerce-indirectly, their bearing upon it .is so remote that it cannot
*210
be termed in any just sense an interference. Under this power, the States may authorize the construction of highways, turnpikes, railways, and canals between points in the same State, and regulate the tolls for the use of the same,
Railroad
v. Maryland,
Congress has no power to interfere with police regulations relating exclusively to the internal trade of the States,
United States
v.
Dewitt,
It was at .one time thought that the admiralty .jurisdiction of the United States did not extend to contracts of affreightment between ports' of the United States, though the voyage were performed upon navigable waters of the United States.
Allen
v.
Newberry,
Under this power the States may also prescribe the form of all commercial contracts, as well as the terms and conditions upon which the internal trade of the State may -be carried on.
The Trade Mark Cases,
Within the
second
class of cases — those of what maybe termed concurrent jurisdiction — -are embraced laws for the regulation of pilots:
Cooley
v.
Philadelphia Board of Wardens,
Of this class of cases it was said by Mr. Justice Curtis in
Cooley
v.
Board of Wardens,
' But wherever such laws, instead of being of a local nature and not affecting interstate commerce but incidentally, are national in their character, the non-action of Congress indicates its will that such commerce shall be free and untrammelled, and the case falls within the
third
class — of those laws wherein the jurisdiction of Congress is exclusive.
Brown
v.
Houston,
The question of the power of the States to lay down a scale of charges, as distinguished from their power to impose taxes, was first squarely presented to the court in
Miunn
v. Illinois,
In the next case, viz., that of the
Chicago, Burlington &c. Railroad v. Iowa,
In the next case, viz.,
Peik v. Chicago & Northwestern Railway,
A similar principle, though under quite a different state of facts, was involved in
Hall
v.
De Cuir,
The prior Cases were all reviewed, and the subject exhaustively considered in the
Wabash &c. Railway
v.
Illinois,
The real question involved here is whether this case can be distinguished from the Wabash case. That involved the right of a single State to fix the charge for transportation from the interior of such State to places in other States. This case involves the right of one State to fix charges for the transportation of persons and property over a bridge connecting it with another State, without the assent of Congress or such other State, and thus involving the further inquiries, first, whether such, traffic across the river is interstate commerce; and, second, whether a bridge can be considered an instrument of such commerce.
The first
question must be answered in the affirmative upon the authority of
Gloucester Ferry Co.
v.
Pennsylvania,
With reference to the
second
question, an attempt is made to distinguish a bridge from a ferry boat,- and to argue that while the latter is an instrument of interstate commerce, the former is not. Both are, however, vehicles of such commerce, and the fact that one is movable and the other is a fixture makes no difference in the application of the-rule. Commerce, was defined in
Gibbons
v. Ogden,
Let us examine some of the cases which are supposed to countenance the doctrine that ferries and bridges connecting two States are not instruments of commerce between such States in such sense as to exempt them from state control. In
Conway
v.
Taylor's
Executors,
It is clear that the State of Kentucky, by the statute in question, attempts to reach out and secure for itself a right to prescribe a rate of toll applicable not only to persons crossing from Kentucky to Ohio, but from Ohio to Kentucky, a right which practically nullifies the corresponding right of Ohio to fix tolls from her own State. It is obvious that the bridge coulti not have been built without the consent of Ohio, since the north end of the bridge and its abutments rest upon Ohio soiland without authority from that State to exercise the right of eminent domain, no land could have been acquired for that purpose. It follows that, if the State of Kentucky has .the right to regulate the travel upon such bridge and fix the tolls, the State of Ohio has the same right, and so long as their action is harmonious there may be no room for friction *221 between the States; but it would scarcely be consonant with good sense to say that separate regulations and separate tariffs may be adopted by each State, (if the subject be one for state regulation,) and made applicable to that portion of the bridge within its own territory. So far as the matter of construction is concerned, each State may proceed separately by authorizing the company to condemn land within its own territory, but in the operation of the bridge their action must be joint or great confusion is likely to result. It may be for the interest of Kentucky to add to its own population by encouraging residents of Cincinnati to purchase homes in Covington, and to do this by fixing the tolls at such a rate as to induce citizens of Ohio to reside within her borders. It might be equally for the interest of Ohio to prescribe a higher rate of toll to induce her citizens to remain and fix their homes within their own Stató, and as persons living in one State and doing business in another would necessarily have to cross the bridge ■at least twice a day, the rates of toll might become a serious question to them. Congress, and Congress alone, possesses the requisite power to harmonize such differences, and to enact ' a uniform scale of charges which will be operative in both directions. The authority of the State, so frequently recognized by this court, to fix tolls for the use of wharves, piers, elevators, and improved channels of navigation, has always been limited to such as were exclusively within the territory of a single State, thus affecting interstate commerce but incidentally, and cannot be extended to structures connecting two States without involving a liability of controversies of a serious nature. For instance, suppose the agent of the Bridge Company in Cincinnati should refuse to recognize tickets sold upon the Kentucky side, enabling the person holding the ticket to pass from Ohio to Kentucky, it would be a mere irutum fulrrien to attempt to punish such agent under the laws of Kentucky. Or, suppose the State of Ohio should authorize such agent to refuse a passage to persons coming from Kentucky who had not paid the toll required by the Ohio statute; or that Kentucky should enact that all persons crossing from Kentucky to Ohio should be entitled to a free *222 passage, and thus attempt to throw the whole burden upon persons crossing in the opposite direction. It might be an advantage to one State to make the charge for foot passengers very low and the charge for merchandise very high; and for the other side to adopt a converse system. One scale of charges might be advantageous to Kentucky in this instance, where the larger city is upon "the north side of the river, while a wholly different system might be to her advantage at Louisville, where the larger city is upon the south sidé.
We do not wish to be understood as saying that, in the absence of Congressional legislation or mutual legislation of the two States, the company has the right to fix tolls at its own discretion. There is always an implied understanding with reference to these structures that the charges shall be reasonable, and the question of reasonableness must be settled as other questions -of a judicial nature are settled, by the evidence in the particular case. As was said in
Gloucester Ferry Co.
v. Pennsylvania,
We do hold, however, that the statute of the Commonwealth of Kentucky in question in this case is an attempted regulation of commerce which it is not within the power of the State to make. As was said by Mr. Justice Miller in the Wabash case ;• “ It is impossible to see any distinction in its effects upon cdmmerce of either class between a statute which regulates the charges for transportation and a statute which *223 levies a tax for the benefit of the State upon the same transportation.”
The judgment of the Court of Appeals of Kentucky is therefore reversed, and the case remanded to that court for further proceedings in conformity with this opinion.
The several States have the power to establish and regulate ferries and bridges, and the rates of toll thereon, whether within one State, or between two adjoining States, subject to the paramount authority of Congress over interstate commerce.
By the concurrent acts of the legislature of Kentucky in 184-6, and of the legislature of Ohio in 1849, this bridge company was made a corporation of each State, and authorized to fix rates of toll.
Congress, by the act of February 17, 1865, c. 39, declared this bridge “ to be, when completed in accordance with the laws of the States of Ohio and Kentucky, a lawful structure; ” but made no provision as to tolls; and thereby manifested the intention of Congress that the rates of toll should be as established by the two States. 13 Stat. 431.
The original acts of incorporation constituted a contract between the corporation and both States, which could not be altered by the one State without the consent of the other.
