The Bridgewater Canal
"The Bridgewater Canal connects Runcorn, Manchester and Leigh, in North West England. It was commissioned by Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, to transport coal from his mines in Worsley to Manchester. It was opened in 1761 from Worsley to Manchester, and later extended from Manchester to Runcorn, and then from Worsley to Leigh.
Often considered to be the first "true" canal in England, as it relied upon existing watercourses as sources of water rather than as navigable routes. Navigable throughout its history, it is one of the few canals in Britain not to have been nationalised, and remains privately owned. Pleasure craft now use the canal which forms part of the Cheshire Ring network of canals."
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The Manchester Ship Canal
The Manchester Ship Canal is an inland waterway 36 miles (58 km) long in the North West of England. Starting at the Mersey Estuary near Liverpool, it has several sets of locks that lift vessels about 60 feet (18 m) up to Manchester, where the canal's terminus was built. This canal opened in 1894 and enabled the newly created Port of Manchester to become Britain's third busiest port despite the city being about 40 miles inland.
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Trafford park
Trafford Park is an area of the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, in Greater Manchester, England. Located opposite Salford Quays, on the southern side of the Manchester Ship Canal, it is 3.4 miles (5.5 km) west-southwest of Manchester city centre, and 1.3 miles (2.1 km) north of Stretford. Until the late 19th century it was the ancestral home of the Trafford family, who sold it to financier Ernest Terah Hooley in 1896. Occupying an area of 4.7 square miles (12 km2), it was the first planned industrial estate in the world,[1] and remains the largest in Europe.
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Trafford Park was built because of the ease of transport of bulk goods that the Ship Canal would provide.
Trafford Park Railway
When Trafford Park was first developed there was little in the way of public transport. The Estates Company that owned Trafford Park therefore commissioned a tramway in the estate.
Two separate tram systems were developed but they both had financial problems.
"Under an 1898 agreement between the Estates Company and the Ship Canal Company, the latter committed to carry freight on their dock railway between the docks and the park and to the construction of a permanent connection between the two railway networks. The West Manchester Light Railway Company was set up the following year to take over the operations of the tramway and to lay additional track. In 1904 responsibility for all of the parks roads and railways passed to the Trafford Park Company, as a result of the Trafford Park Act of that year. The railway network could subsequently be extended as required, without the need to seek additional permissions from Parliament.
The network was also connected to the Manchester, South Junction and Altrincham Railway near Cornbrook. At its peak, the estate's railway network covered 26 route miles (42 km), handling about 2.5 million tons of cargo in 1940. Like the rest of the park, it fell into decline during the 1960s, exacerbated by the increasing use of road transport, and it was closed in 1998.
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This railway bridge carries the line over the Bridgewater Canal and was part of the connection with the Manchester, South Junction and Altrincham Railway. It carried trains to the south part of Trafford Park.
It crosses the Bridgewater Canal at the very start of the extension of the canal to Runcorn.