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.
Moss Road Bridge
Moss Road connected the town of Stretford and Trafford Park and was a narrow country road. When the canal was first built connecting Worsley and Manchester a hump back bridge was built to carry the road over the canal.
In the early days of Trafford Park a large factory was built by an American Company's subsidiary, British Westinghouse. The factory was sited to the North of this road and this website about the company has the following description of it.
"Moss Road itself was a country lane, little more than a cart-track and in winter a long slog through quagmire. The road was so narrow that vehicles could only pass at a central lay-by, and it crossed the Bridgewater Canal by the narrow humpbacked Taylor's Bridge, which somehow survived into the thirties. Vehicles scattered pedestrians into the hedge, and to avoid delay the works superintendent, travelling in his gig, would send on an advance guard to clear the road. Heads of departments and foremen usually hired four-wheelers, crowding them to capacity, but for most the walk from Stretford was unavoidable."
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This modern bridge is made out of concrete and much more substantial than the original.