Waterways and Water Transport in Different Countries by J. Stephen Jeans

THE MANCHESTER SHIP CANAL. “Rivers diverted from their native course, And bound with chains of artificial force, From large cascades in pleasing tumult rolled, Or rose through figured stone or breathing gold.” —_Prior._ Whether we regard the magnitude of the enterprise, the importance of the district it is intended to serve, the difficulties and opposition that have had to be surmounted, or the many and varied influences that it is likely to exercise upon the future of transport in the United Kingdom, the Manchester Ship Canal is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable undertakings of modern times. It is not that the canal is unique in point of the expenditure involved, or in so far as the engineering problems to be dealt with are concerned. The Suez Canal is at once a much more costly and a much more extensive work, its actual cost having been about 20,000,000_l._ sterling, as against less than half that sum for the Manchester enterprise; and its length having been about 100 miles, as against