rivers which are
carried under the canal in huge cast-iron pipes. At the busy town of
Runcorn we reach the first railway bridge, and the canal is narrowed to
ninety-two feet, flowing in a graceful curve between concrete walls. The
railway bridge, as it stands to-day, was built by the Canal Company, for
the old one was too low for ships to pass beneath. It is now
seventy-five feet above the surface of the water, and all other fixed
bridges that cross the canal must be equally high.

Ten long straight miles beyond Runcorn a vessel comes to a halt in front
of the first lock on the canal proper. It is at a place called
Latchford. We are twenty-one miles from Eastham, and at the end of the
tidal course. Fourteen and a half more miles to Manchester--and in that
distance we have sixty feet and six inches to climb! As we move slowly
into the lock the hydraulic machinery is set in motion; the gate behind
us is closed, and the one in front slowly opens. In rushes the foaming
water, lifting our vessel as it rises in the lock, and in a few more
minutes we are steaming on our way--sixteen feet above the level of the
waters just left behind. We have mounted the first step in the watery
stairway leading to Manchester's front door.

Some seven miles further on another lock is reached, and passing
through this we shortly come in sight of what is, perhaps, the most
interesting engineering feat performed in this great enterprise. It is
the Barton swing bridge, and was constructed to carry the Bridgewater
Canal across the one upon which we are travelling in imagination. About
the year 1756 the young Duke of Bridgewater employed an engineering
genius named James Brindley to make a canal from his coal-mines near
Manchester to the town of Runcorn. With astounding skill, James Brindley
carried out the work, finding his greatest difficulty at the point of
which we are speaking. The river Irwell flowed directly across the
course of his canal and at a considerably lower level. Friends advised
him to lead his canal down to the river by a large number of small
locks, and lift it again on the other side by similar means. 'That is
the usual thing to do,' they said.

But Brindley preferred the _best_ way to the usual way, and boldly
carried his canal over the river on a stone bridge or aqueduct. It was
the first time such a thing had been done in England, and it served its
purpose for nearly one hundred and fifty years. Then the Manchester Ship
Ca