53 Pa. Stat. § 16859
It shall be lawful for the mayor, aldermen, and citizens of Philadelphia, aforesaid to pass ordinances, or take other measures for regulating, adjusting and determining the easternmost line to which wharves may hereafter lawfully be constructed on the river Delaware, fronting said city, and to cause a record of such regulated line to be made in the court of quarter sessions for the county of Philadelphia; to fix and decide on, or cause their officers to fix or decide on the levels of all wharves fronting the said city, and to declare the regulation thereof; to require the owners thereof, to pave the same or to lay them with gravel, according to such regulation, so as effectually to drain and pass off the water from the same, and to require all persons owning and occupying or using docks or wharves, to cleanse the same and to keep the same in repair, and to prescribe the form, materials, and character of workmanship of all wharves hereafter to be constructed, and to require all platforms now projecting into the river Delaware, and supported on piles, pillars, or piers, to be removed, and to prohibit the construction in future, of any such projecting platforms; and to require the removal, and prohibit the construction, in future, of all buildings, fences, and other obstructions, to the eastward of Delaware avenue, above mentioned, and to declare all erections and constructions whatsoever, contrary to the said ordinances, whether erected before or after the passage of the same to be nuisances, and generally to devise, ordain, and execute whatever other things shall by them, the said mayor, aldermen, and citizens of Philadelphia aforesaid, be deemed necessary or convenient for the good arrangement, security, and government of the said wharves: Provided, That the easternmost line of the said wharves shall not be held to be finally determined, and the record thereof shall not be made, as aforesaid, unless the board of wardens, of the port of Philadelphia, shall decide and make their certificate in writing, that such easternmost line is not inconsistent with the public interests, which certificate shall also be recorded in the said court of quarter sessions; but if the said certificate shall not be granted by them, within three months after application made therefor, the refusal or omission of the said board of wardens to grant such certificate, shall, when duly verified by affidavit, be esteemed the judgment and decision of the said board of wardens, that such easternmost line is inconsistent with the public interests, and in case such a decision shall in any wise be made, an appeal shall be therefrom to the said court of quarter sessions, as in other cases, and the judgment of the said court, in favor of such regulated line, shall be, for all purposes, equivalent to a similar decision by the said board of wardens: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be so construed to give authority to any one to erect wharves, or piers, extending out as far as the said regulated easternmost line, without license, from the said board of wardens, as heretofore.
53 P.S. § 16859