Industrial canal (Bridgewater Canal)
Canal industrial (Bridgewater)
- Date
- 1761 · confidence high
- Place
- Worsley-Manchester, England, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- James Brindley and Francis Egerton, Duke of Bridgewater
- People
- 👤 Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater1736–1803👤 James Brindley1716–1772
- Field
- Movement
What it is
The first British canal built without following a river, with an aqueduct over the Irwell, to carry coal from the duke's mines to Manchester. It halved the price of coal in the city and unleashed 'canal mania'.
Opened in 1761; the Barton Aqueduct was regarded as a wonder of the age.
What it led to
- The British canal network (6,000 km by around 1830) and cheaper heavy transport
- Manchester as an industrial centre supplied with coal
- Professional civil engineering (Brindley, Smeaton, Telford)
- A share-financing model for infrastructure
Built on
- Pound lock984
- Pound lock with mitre gates1497
- Summit-level canal with reservoir feed1666-1681
- Canal du Midi (1681)
- Coal mining
Made possible
- Pontcysyllte iron navigable aqueduct1795-1805
- Erie Canal1817-1825
- Railway (as a replacement)
- Steam-powered mills inland
- Wedgwood pottery distributed by canal