§ 61. Farm and road bridges. The commissioner of transportation is
authorized and required to maintain until April first, nineteen hundred
fifty-four, at public expense farm, road and street bridges over the
canal system, in all places where such bridges were constructed prior to
the twentieth day of April, eighteen hundred thirty-nine, if, in his
opinion, the public convenience requires that they should be continued,
whether heretofore maintained at the expense of the state or of the
counties, towns, villages and cities where they are situate, provided,
however, that commencing on the first day of April, nineteen hundred
fifty-four, and continuing thereafter, the maintenance, repair,
improvement, replacement or closing of any such bridge over any section
of the canal heretofore abandoned or which may hereafter be abandoned
shall be governed by the provisions of the highway law, except that any
such bridges situate in a city shall be maintained, repaired, improved,
replaced or closed in the same manner and subject to the same provisions
of law as apply to other streets and bridges in such city.