JAMES BRIND LEY. 6i 



to wish it undone ; on the contrary, when any new difficulty 

 occurred, it appeared almost as if he had been all along 

 providing for it — as if his other operations had been directed 

 from the first by his anticipation of the one now about to be 

 undertaken. 



In order to bring the canal to Manchester, it was necessary 

 to carry it across the Irwell. That river is, and was then, 

 navigable for a considerable way above the place at which 

 the canal comes up to it ; and this circumstance interposed 

 an additional difficulty, as, of course, in establishing the one 

 navigation, it was indispensable that the other should not be 

 destroyed or interfered with. But nothing could dismay the 

 daring genius of Brindley, Thinking it, however, due to his 

 noble employer to give him the most satisfying evidence in 

 his power of the practicability of his design, he requested that 

 another engineer might be called in to give his opinion before 

 its execution should be determined on. This person Brindley 

 carried to the spot where he proposed to rear his aqueduct, 

 and endeavoured to explain to him how he meant to carry 

 on the work. But the man only shook his head, and 

 remarked that 'he had often heard of castles in the air, but 

 never before was shown where any of them were to be 

 erected.' The duke, nevertheless, retained his confidence in 

 his own engineer, and it was resolved that the work should 

 proceed. The erection of the aqueduct, accordingly, was 

 begun in September 1760, and on the 17th of July following, 

 the first boat passed over it, the whole structure forming a 

 bridge of above two hundred yards in length, supported upon 

 three arches, of which the centre one rose nearly forty feet 

 above the surface of the river ; on which might be frequently 

 beheld a vessel passing along, while another, with all its masts 



