The Bridgewater canal was a marvel of engineering. Canals made it possible to transport people and goods long distances in an unheard of short time. People could take on a barge drawn by a single horse goods that would have required many carts and horses over land.
Where the Bridgewater needed to cross the River Irwell a bridge was constructed in 1761 to take the canal overhead as an aqueduct. All went well until the 1890s when the River Irwell was to become the Manchester Ship Canal. Those ships destined for Manchester and Salford docks would crash spectacularly into the canal bridge.
The answer was a swing bridge to carry the aqueduct. The photos show it in the open position. In this position the aqueduct is aligned along the island that was constructed to take the brick tower that contains the control system.
The aqueduct is an iron trough 330 feet long and containing around 800 tons of water held by gates at each end. Other gates hold back the water in the canal itself. Amazingly there is a similar swinging bridge on the island on the other side of the brick tower to take the road over the Manchester Ship Canal! I was standing on it to take the top photo
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