AQUEDUCT AT THE PEAT FOREST CANAL.
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.
AQUEDUCT ON THE PEAT FOREST CANAL.