Let's not forget the White Sea - Baltic Canal, which proved that even in the Soviet Union of 1933, the price of life could always be lowered.
Posted on 07/31/2016 2:30:19 AM PDT by moose07
A new exhibition marking 300 years since the birth of canal pioneer James Brindley has opened. How did his work transform the English landscape and unlock a new era in the Industrial Revolution?
When James Brindley sought Parliament's backing for his plan for an aqueduct over the River Irwell in Lancashire, he apparently employed a novel means of gaining their attention.
Taking out a block of Cheshire cheese, the man who engineered England's first canal carved out a model of the waterway he hoped to build.
"It's not clear if he cut it into pieces and put it in water to illustrate how waterproof troughs worked or if he carved arches to show how an aqueduct could work," said Nigel Crowe, from the Canal & River Trust.
"The other story is he brought in a lump of clay and bashed that into shape.
"If it is true or not, it is a nice bit of fiction."
Born in Tunstead in the Derbyshire hills in 1716, Brindley moved as a child to a farm in Leek, Staffordshire, left to the family by their Quaker relatives.
His early career focused on building and repairing mills in the area, where he learned to control water flows.
A meeting with the Duke of Bridgewater led to the start of the Bridgewater Canal, commissioned in 1759, to transport coal from the duke's mine at Worsley to Manchester.
At the time a pioneering feat, the waterway became recognised as the first real canal in Britain.
The building of the Bridgewater Canal's Barton Aqueduct - the structure he had demonstrated with cheese - became his most famous feat, opening on 17 July 1761.
It was the first navigable aqueduct to be built in England and a structure that would stand for another 100 years.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
If you fancy a little light reading : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._T._C._Rolt
The story of total shutdown to reincarnation is quite special.
He had a fine insight, suggesting before mamy that the logical outcome of mass prduction would lead to machines making machines and leave men obsolete.
I never reada about someone with so many things named after him!!
Even dabbled in horror using industrial settings as a backdrop :) That sure started a trend.
What genious.
Bridgewater is the Stage Coach Capital of Texas.
The town achieved fame and commerce by building a bridge to permit passage of the Overland Stage on the Butterfield Trail, the first transcontinental contract for the US Mail
Fascinating and should be taught in school.
Originally, the “walking lane” was so a horse or mule could tow the barge.
That makes sense. And of course the goal was to traverse over rough terrain in a much easier, cheaper and faster way, right?
Though not on the scale of some pictured here, the Roebling Bridge at Minisink Ford, NY was originally a canal aqueduct over the Delaware River. It used the same suspension cable technology he later used in the Brooklyn Bridge.
Not far from you either...easily in a day-trip drive.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roebling%27s_Delaware_Aqueduct
Indeed, these canals was how Sampson Lloyd II and James Barclay expanded their banking empires in England.
ping
Well, that walking lane is the original towpath for the horses pulling the canal boats. No engines back then!
(Over the aqueduct, there is obviously room for one-way traffic only. So, a few go by one way, then the other way.)
On the wider canals, boats can go both ways, but there was one towpath, and so the faster boat (higher priority mail boat usually) kept going, and the slower freight boat stopped, let his line sink down to the bottom of the canal. That let the faster boat’s horses step over the tow line and keep going. Then the slow boat started walking again.
Before I check out, I’d like to sail down the Erie Canal. I’d prefer a 50 foot Sea Ray...
I think it was about 1980.
Let's not forget the White Sea - Baltic Canal, which proved that even in the Soviet Union of 1933, the price of life could always be lowered.
Is it possible that one was built by the Elder Roebling?
Built by John A. Roebling who also designed the Brooklyn Bridge using the same technology.
He may have had a hand in the design of the Brooklyn Bridge, but it was built by his son Washington Roebling.
It used the same suspension cable technology he later used in the Brooklyn Bridge.
Never said he built it. Also, he had more than just a hand in the design. It was his design and it was already under construction when he was injured.
OK,my misunderstanding.
No problemo.
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