The Lancaster Canal Co was set up when its construction was authorised in 1792. The canal runs from Westhoughton near Wigan, through Preston and Lancaster to Kendal. The length is 75 miles and it has 10 aqueducts, including a huge aqueduct at Lune.
It was surveyed by the famous canal builder John Rennie (the elder) and his plans for a second aqueduct at Ribble were never realised. Instead two sections of waterway were connected by a 5 mile horse tramway at Ribble over a wooden bridge. This inconvenience spelt the end of its commercial use and the arrival of the railway was the final blow. Without the funds to build the Ribble aqueduct, canal system was not continuous.
However in 1826 a branch canal to Glasson Dock was dug, which had commercial success.
1839: 'THE FIRST SKEW BRIDGE IN ENGLAND.—The following letter appears in a late number of the Liverpool Mercury:- " Sir,— I have lately read a report of a trial at the last Lancaster assizes respecting a bridge erected over the road at Galgate, on which occasion several eminent civil engineers were examined. Amongst them was the celebrated G. Stevenson [sic], Esq., who is reported to have said that he is one of the first who built skew bridges, and he commenced on the Liverpool and Manchester railway. The necessity of avoiding curves on railways has suddenly brought these singular constructions into common use, and they are generally considered to have originated with railways; but the old proprietors of the Lancaster canal believe that the first skew bridge in England was built by their resident engineer, Mr. Cartwright, on their canal, upwards of forty years ago. It is placed at Green-bank, in Preston, and the road to the Fylde passes over it. I beg to ask if you are aware of any earlier bridge of the kind in England? — L. T." The editor of the Manchester Guardian thinks the earliest bridge of this kind is in the neighbourhood of that town.)'[1] [The Manchester candidate would be the Store Street Aqueduct ].
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ Globe - Thursday 1 August 1839