No person or company owning or operating a railroad which crosses over and above a street less than seventy feet in width, in any city in this state, at an elevation above such street sufficient to permit persons to pass and repass along such street beneath the crossing, shall place, cause to be placed, or permit to be or remain in the street beneath such crossing or bridge, any pier or other stay or support for it, unless the placing or maintaining of such pier, stay, or support is authorized by the city in which the crossing is situated by ordinance, or permit such crossing or bridge to be or remain in such condition that iron, coal, other hard substance, fluid, or noisome matter can fall or drop through such crossing or bridge upon persons traveling or passing beneath it.