2012

SJ8196 : Manchester Ship Canal

taken 11 years ago, near to Rusholme, Manchester, England

This is 1 of 14 images, with title Manchester Ship Canal in this square
Manchester Ship Canal
Manchester Ship Canal
Looking along the canal, from Ivy Wharf, towards Manchester and Salford city centres. The tallest building (towards the right hand side of the photograph) is SJ8397 : Beetham Tower, a 47-storey hotel and apartment building. The remains of Pomona Docks (numbers 3 and 2) can be seen on the right hand side of the canal as we look at it.
The Manchester Ship Canal

The Manchester Ship Canal, which took six years to build and was opened in 1894, is a 36-mile-long inland waterway linking Manchester to the Irish Sea at Liverpool. It generally follows the original routes of the rivers Mersey and Irwell through the historic counties of Cheshire and Lancashire. Several sets of locks lift vessels about 60 feet up to the Manchester Docks (now Salford Quays), where the canal's terminus was built.

When the ship canal opened in January 1894 it was the largest river navigation canal in the world, and enabled the newly created Port of Manchester to become Britain's third busiest port despite the city being about 40 miles inland. Since its opening, the canal handled a wide range of ships and cargoes, from coastal vessels to intra-European shipping and inter-continental cargo liners; Manchester Liners established regular sailings by large ocean-going vessels.

The amount of freight carried by the canal peaked in 1958 at 18 million long tons but changes to shipping methods and the growth of containerisation during the 1970s and 1980s caused traffic to decline, resulting in the closure of the docks at Salford in 1984. Although able to accommodate a range of vessels from coastal ships to inter-continental cargo liners, the canal is no longer large enough for most modern vessels.


Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved]   © Copyright David Dixon and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
This photo is linked from: Automatic Clusters: · Pomona Docks [56] · Building [38] · City Centre [16] · Ivy Wharf [10] · Dock Number [8] Title Clusters: · Manchester Ship Canal [14] ·
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Grid Square
SJ8196, 361 images   (more nearby 🔍)
Photographer
David Dixon   (more nearby)
Date Taken
Monday, 1 October, 2012   (more nearby)
Submitted
Tuesday, 2 October, 2012
Subject Location
OSGB36: geotagged! SJ 8184 9684 [10m precision]
WGS84: 53:28.0789N 2:16.5016W
Camera Location
OSGB36: geotagged! SJ 8163 9664
View Direction
Northeast (about 45 degrees)
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Image classification(about): Geograph
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