The Bridgewater Canal

[taxlady]

swestrup and I watched a really nifty TV show tonight on (Canadian) Discovery Channel: Industrial Revelations. Back in 1759, Francis Egerton, the Third Duke of Bridgewater, had James Brindley do the surveying for the first true canal in Great Britain. "A canal is a waterway constructed independent to any existing watercourses except for water supply." This canal runs from the Duke's coal mines at Worsley to Stretford on the outskirts of Manchester. When they got to the River Irwell, they could not negotiate an agreement with the Irwell Navigation Company to use their canal for access to the other side of the river. So, James Brindley designed an aqueduct across the River Irwell. It was made of stone, three arched, 600 feet long, 36 feet wide, and 39 feet high. It was opened on 1761 July 17.

In 1885 the newly formed Manchester Ship Canal Company bought the Bridgewater and Mersey and Irwell navigation companies. The Manchester Ship Canal would carry ocean-going ships from Eastham on the River Mersey to Manchester. The aqueduct across the River Irwell wasn't high enough for ocean going ships. There were many proposals for replacing it. In 1896, Brindley's Aqueduct was replaced by the Barton Swing Aqueduct. It's 235 feet long, 18 feet wide and has a total weight of 1,400 tons. My mind is still boggling at the concept of a canal with an aqueduct to cross a river and at the idea of a swing aqueduct.

The Barton Swing Aqueduct

Comments

[hill-slug.livejournal.com]

That is cool. We take technology so much granted in our day and age that I think we forget what it took to build things before CAD programs.