In Washington Bridge Company v. William Stewart, James Stewart, and John Glenn, the Supreme Court was asked to decide whether a bridge company had the right to charge tolls for crossing its bridge. The Stewarts and Glenn argued that they were not liable for paying such tolls because their land abutted the river on which the bridge was built. The Court held that while it is true that landowners have certain rights over rivers running through or adjacent to their property, these rights do not extend so far as to prevent others from building bridges across them and charging reasonable fees for passage over those bridges. Thus, in this case, the appellants were required to pay reasonable tolls when crossing Washington Bridge Company's bridge.

In the case of Washington Bridge Company v. William Stewart, James Stewart, and John Glenn, the Supreme Court was asked to decide whether a bridge company had an exclusive right to build a toll bridge over the Potomac River. The majority opinion held that no such exclusive right existed; however Justice McLean dissented from this decision. He argued that Congress had granted an exclusive privilege for building bridges across navigable waters in order to protect navigation rights and promote commerce on those waterways. In his view, this grant of authority should be interpreted as including an implied promise not to authorize any other similar works without first compensating the original builder for their investment in constructing it. Therefore he concluded that allowing another party to construct a competing bridge would constitute taking away property without due process or just compensation which is prohibited by law and thus unconstitutional.