Obstruct

1.

To block up; to interpose obstacles; to render impassable; to fill with barriers or impediments; as to obstruct a road or way.

U. S. v. Williams, 28 Fed. Cas. 633; Chase v. Oshkosh, 81 Wis. 313, 51 N. W. 560, 15 L. R. A. 553, 29 Am. St. Rep. 898; Overhouser v. American Cereal Co., 118 Iowa, 417, 92 N. W. 74; Gorham v. Withey, 52 Mich. 50, 17 N. W. 272. 2.

To impede or hinder; to interpose obstacles or impediments, to the hindrance or frustration of some act or service; as to obstruct an officer in the execution of his duty.

Davis v. State, 76 Ga. 722. 3.

As applied to navigable waters, to "obstruct" them is to interpose such impediments in the way of free and open navigation that vessels are thereby prevented from going where ordinarily they have a right to go or where they may find it necessary to go in their maneuvers.

See In re City of Richmond (D. Ct) 43 Fed. 88; Terre Haute Drawbridge Co., v. Halliday, 4 Ind. 36; The Vancouver, 28 Fed. Cas. 960. 4.

As applied to the operation of railroads, an "obstruction" may be either that which obstructs or hinders the free and safe passage of a train, or that which may receive an injury or damage, such as it would be unlawful to inflict, if run over or against by the train, as in the case of aattle or a man approaching on the track.

Nashville & C. R. Co. v. Carroll, 6 Heisk. (Tenn.) 368; Louisville N. & G. R. Co., v. Reidmond, 11 Lea (Tenn.) 205; South & North Alabama R. Co. v. Williams, 65 Ala. 77.