NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- If you own a house that's run-down and not up to code, the city will make you fix it. But the same standard apparently does not apply to a huge corporate railroad.

Video: Council Member Wants CSX To Fix Rusting Bridge

Metro Council wants CSX to paint an aging railroad bridge downtown, but the company wants taxpayers to pay for it.

"You look at all the money that we've spent downtown and how nice it looks," said District 12 Metro Council Member Jim Gotto. "Then you look off to the right and here's this bridge. It looks like hasn't been painted in 100 years."

Most of the time, run-down private property would have Codes tracking down the owner, but as long as you're on rails, it seems appearances don't matter.

A couple of weeks ago, Gotto drafted a resolution requesting CSX fix the rusting bridge. The Metro Council unanimously approved the resolution asking CSX to paint the bridge, but the response from the railroad wasn't exactly what they were hoping for.

"(They) essentially said, 'We don't have money to do it. If you want to give us tax money to help us, we'll certainly let you do that,'" Gotto said.

The response came in a letter and delivered a sense of being snubbed.

"They didn't even have the courtesy to have an individual sign it. So that, to me, was kind of a slap in the face as well," said Gotto.

More than anything, Gotto said he feels a company that has recorded record profits this year should not ask citizens to pay for the expensive paint job.

"It's their infrastructure," he said. "It doesn't belong to the taxpayers, it doesn't belong to the city, and I think it's ludicrous for them to ask for the taxpayers to help them fund taking care of their own infrastructure."

There's little the council can do right now since the railroad isn't breaking any existing ordinance, so Gotto is looking at creating one so he won't have to look at the bridge.

"I'm not going to give up," he said. "I really feel like they should take care of this."

CSX said bridge safety is their No. 1 priority and that most of their maintenance money is devoted to that. There is a smaller pool of money dedicated to beautification projects.

But with more than 16,000 bridges nationwide, it's difficult to grant all requests for aesthetic work.