On Saturday last a party of newspaper correspondents and others
made a trial-trip on the Manchester Ship Canal, which is now full from the Mersey to Salford Docks. As far as engineering considerations are concerned the canal is clearly a success, and we cannot doubt that a water-way, open at all bones of the tide to ocean-going ships, will be a great benefit to the trade of Alanchester. Whether the undertaking will ever pay interest on the £15,500,000 which it has cost, is another matter. The canal has a total length of 351 miles. Its average width at water-level is 172 ft. Its minimum depth is 26 ft. Its minimum width at bottom is 120 ft. The advo- cates of the canal note with special pride that when the steamer on the trial-trip was entering the canal, the Liverpool docks were all closed because of the low-tide. Hence they assert that at low-tide it will be better for steamers to come straight on to Manchester than to hang about in the Mersey waiting for high-water. On January 1st the canal will be open to all vessels.
Previous page
