On Wednesday, it was announced in the Manchester City Council
that the reports of the engineers left no doubt that the Ship Canal would be ready for traffic from the entrance at Eastham to the Pomona Docks at Manchester by New- Year's Day. There would then be a depth of 26 ft. all the way, except at a few short lengths, where temporarily there might be only a depth of 23 ft. That is a very striking announcement. In other words, from the beginning of 1804 and onwards Manchester will be a seaport,—a more acces- sible one, we take it, than either Bordeaux or Bristol, and many other places which are looked on as great centres of sea-borne traffic. The actual working of the canal will be watched with extraordinary interest. If it proves a success— and we hardly see why it should not, except perhaps finan- cially—plenty of other inland towns will reach out for water privileges, and the twentieth century may become the age of artificial rivers,.
Previous page
