Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

THE MANCHESTER SHIP CANAL. 169 Cheaper Transport. One result navigated up Capacity of the Canal. of the best means of cheapening the cost of transit on all descriptions of traffic from the manufacturing centres of Lancashire, Yorkshire, and the Midlands. of the changes witnessed since 1894 has been the conversion of the terminal docks into what is really a prodigious water- side railway goods station, Hiige every dock, basin, warehouse, Waterside shed included in the sys- Station. tem being furnished with one or more lines of railway. A grain elevator, with storage capacity for 40,000 tons (1,500,000 bushels), has long been in successful operation, and a second is to be erected. The port serves the most densely-populated district in England, and the Canal has been to Manchester by vessels of 12,000 tons dead-weight capa- city. Some of the largest ocean- going steamships are, in fact, regularly navigating its waters, under conditions of absolute safety. Since the opening of the Canal, the total tonnage in traffic and the total yearly revenue have been :— Year. Tons £ 1894. 925,659 97,901. 1895. 1,358,875 137,474. 1896. 1,826,237 182,330. 1897. 2,065,815 204,664. 1898. 2,595,585 236,225. 1899. 2,778,108 264,775. 1900. 3,060,516 290,830. 1901. 2,942,393 309,517. 1902. 3,418,059 358,491. 1903. 3,840,895 397,026. 1904. 3,917,578 418,013. 1905. 4,253,354 449,436. 1906. 4,700,924 498,837. 1907. 5,210,759 535,585. 1908. 4,582,496 506,975. Up to the present time the expenditure on capital account has been nearly £17,000,000. A record such as that disclosed by these figures proclaims the success of the Canal. It could not be expected that the sanguine ex- pectations of its brave promoters should be Success of the Project. Ten Million People benefited. Decline of Trade arrested. fully realized in the comparatively short period that has elapsed since the venture was con- summated. But wonderful progress has been achieved. Mr. W. H. Hunter, who is now the chief engineer, declared, in a paper read at the International Engineering Congress in 1904, that “the operation of the Manchester Ship Canal has directly or indirectly affected beneficially the whole of the greatest industrial district on the face of the earth—a dis- trict of which the present population does not fall far short of 10,000,000 persons—while in the more limited area, of which the city of Manchester is the heart and centre, many in- dustries have been saved from extinction, and many others from decline and ultimate decay.” Between the years 1880 and 1890 “it was only too apparent,” said Mr. Hunter, “ that in Manchester and its environment of manu- facturing towns decadence was stamped upon almost every in- dustry, and that all progress was arrested. One manufac- turer after another moved his works to the sea- board, leaving disused factories, empty ware- houses, and uninhabited dwellings. . . . Now, not only has decline been arrested and decay- averted, but lines of new and vigorous growth have shot, and are shooting, out on every side. North, south, east, and west, there is no ex- ception—expansion is universal. Old indus- tries have been revived, and new industries have been introduced. The change is definite and impressive, and has been due solely to the effect and influence of the Canal.” In the same paper Mr. Hunter quoted a very remarkable statement by Mr. C. W. Macara, President of the Federation of Master Cotton Spinners’ Associations, and ex-President of the Manchester Cotton Association, that “ the Canal has, in reduction of the cost of conveyance of raw cotton and of goods manu-