72
Opinion of the Court
nected with the shore which may be necessary to the full enjoyment of her riparian ownership, and which shall not impede the free navigation or other common use of the river as a public highway.
"To that extent Virginia has shown her rights on the river so clearly as to make them indisputable." Id., at D-18 to D-19.
The arbitrators did not differentiate between Virginia's dominion over the soil and her right to construct improvements beyond low-water mark. Indeed, Virginia's right "to erect . . . structures connected with the shore" is inseparable from, and "necessary to," the "full enjoyment of her riparian ownership" of the soil to low-water mark. Ibid. Like her ownership of the soil, Virginia gained the waterway construction right by a long period of prescription. That right was "reserved" in her 1776 Constitution, "assented to" by Maryland in the 1785 Compact, and "indisputabl[y]" shown by Virginia. Ibid. Thus, the right to use the River beyond low-water mark is a right of Virginia qua sovereign, and was nowhere made subject to Maryland's regulatory authority. Maryland's necessary concession that Virginia owns the soil to low-water mark must also doom her claim that Virginia does not possess riparian rights appurtenant to those lands to construct improvements beyond the low-water mark and otherwise make use of the water in the River.7
7 The sovereign character of Virginia's Article Fourth riparian rights is further confirmed by the proposal of Maryland's representatives before the arbitrators. Maryland contended that the "true" boundary line should be drawn around "all wharves and other improvements now extending or which may hereafter be extended, by authority of Virginia from the Virginia shore into the [Potomac] beyond low water mark." Va. Lodging L-130 (W. Whyte and I. Jones, Boundary Line Between the States of Maryland and Virginia, Before the Hons. Jeremiah S. Black, William A. Graham, and Charles J. Jenkins, Arbitrators upon the Boundary Line between the States of Virginia and Maryland (June 26, 1874)). In proceedings from 1870-1874, in which the States unsuccessfully attempted
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