Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

{Photo, R. Banks.) IN IRLAM LOCKS. THE MANCHESTER SHIP CANAL. BY W, T. PERKINS. This Chapter describes how a great Inland City was made, for practical commercial purposes, a Seaport, accessible to Ships of Large Tonnage. THIS great scheme, which made Man- chester a port, is well entitled to rank among the “ Engineering Wonders of ’ the World.” The advantages to be derived by giving direct access to the sea from the city which Mr. Gladstone once described as “ the centre of the modern life of the coun- try ” appears to have been recognized nearly two hundred years ago. But it was not until Mr. Daniel Adamson took The First Practicable Scheme for a Ship Canal to Manchester, the matter in hand in June 1882 that any really adequate scheme was brought to public notice. A pri- vate meeting at Air. Adamson's house in Dids- bury led to the formation of a Provisional Com- mittee, who invited two engineers—Mr. H. H. Fulton and Mr. Edward Leader Williams—to submit definite proposals. The scheme adopted was that of Mr. Leader Williams, who was afterwards knighted because of his magnificent work. The proposal submitted to Parliament in 1883, and again submitted (with modifica- tions) in 1884, was (a) a dredged channel be- tween training walls in the estuary, from Garston to Runcorn ; (&) a tidal cut through the land from Runcorn to Latchford; (c) a locked canal from Latchford to Manchester, so that in the latter city the water might always be maintained at a convenient level, instead of, as Mr. Fulton intended, at a depth of 90 feet below the surface of the land sur- rounding the tidal basin.