Bridgewater Canal

Bridgewater Canal, British canal now extending from Worsley to Liverpool. An engineering masterpiece of the 18th century, the Bridgewater Canal was executed by James Brindley, a brilliant self-taught mechanic and engineer in the service of Francis Egerton, 3rd duke of Bridgewater. The canal facilitated the cheap movement of coal into the city and thus helped fuel the Industrial Revolution in England.

The duke wanted a canal to facilitate transporting coal from his mines at Worsley to Manchester, a distance of 16 km (10 miles), and envisaged a conventional canal with a number of locks. Brindley, however, after reconnoitring the route, persuaded the duke to allow him to construct a gravity-flow canal crossing the Irwell valley on a viaduct carried on arches. The highly successful canal, completed in 1761, extended deep into the coalfield and cut the cost of coal in Manchester in half. In 1776 the canal was extended from Manchester to Liverpool, an additional 48 km (30 miles).