This aqueduct forms part of the Peat Forest canal, which is a branch of
one of the canals extending out from Manchester in England. The latter
city is the great center of the cotton manufacture for England, and
perhaps the principal manufacturing town in the world. Before the
invention of what was called the _spinning-frame_, in 1767, the entire
imports of cotton into Great Britain did not amount to four million
pounds a year, and the value of exported cotton goods was not over one
million dollars. But so rapid has been the improvement of machinery, and
the increase of manufactures, that in 1840 the imports of cotton
amounted to the prodigious quantity of nearly six hundred million
pounds, of which nearly five hundred million were manufactured. And in
1854, these imports amounted to nearly nine hundred million pounds, of
which about the same proportion was manufactured as in 1840. Of this
immense manufacture, Manchester is the center; and to this may be added
various other manufactures, as in silks, worsteds, machinery, &c., &c.,
&c. As a consequence of this immense business, seeking, of course,
outlets to market, Manchester has become a great center of internal
navigation. So early as 1761, the Duke of Bridgewater’s canal was
constructed; and this was soon followed by the Bury and Bolton canal, in
1791; by that to Ashton and Oldham, in 1792; and by that to Rochdale, in
1794. And these, again, are connected with other canals in such a manner
as to establish an easy communication with the eastern, central and
southern counties, including the ports of Hull, London and Bristol, as
well as Liverpool, which, of all others, is _the_ port of Manchester. It
is on one of these side canals that the aqueduct, a view of which is
given in the cut above, is located; or rather, it forms part of the
canal itself. It is not so much to be noted for its greatness or
expensiveness, as for the fact that it was among some of the earliest
structures of this kind, which have since become common wherever canal
navigation is known.
[Illustration: AQUEDUCT ON THE PEAT FOREST CANAL.]