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