Though the Manchester Ship Canal is to be nearly twice as wide as the Suez Canal, its width for some miles below Manchester will be still greater, for there the banks will form long continuous wharves for the accommodation of the works and factories that are certain to be attracted to the spot. Indeed, so obvious are the advantages of ocean shipment, and so extensive the industries of South Lancashire, that it is not improbable the whole course of the canal may, in process of time, be lined with wharves, and the two great cities of Manchester and Liverpool may be united by a continuous track of dense population. Be that as it may, there seems every reason to believe that the undertaking will be a financial success. Calculation has shown that if the cotton alone that enters and leaves Manchester were carried by the canal at half the rates charged by the railways, there would result not only an annual saving of £456,000 to the cotton trade, but a clear profit to the canal company sufficient to pay more than 3 per cent. interest on its own capital. And, again, the railway and other local interests that have hitherto been opposed to this great enterprise can hardly fail to be in the long run benefited by the enlarged prosperity and increased general trade and manufactures it will develop. So that it will presently be found that there is room enough and work enough for both canal and railways.
The Manchester Ship Canal, so far from having been ready for traffic on the 1st January, 1892, was not completed until the end of 1893, and it was only on the 16th December, 1893, that the directors and their friends made the trial trip throughout its entire length, accomplishing the distance of 35½ miles in 5½ hours. The total cost of the canal was greatly in excess of the estimates, which placed it at eight million pounds, as fifteen millions is the sum actually expended upon it. With such a vast capital expenditure, it may be some time before the ordinary shareholders can look for dividends, especially as there has not been any sudden rush of traffic, such as many sanguine people expected. On the other hand, traffic is continuously and steadily increasing, and there is reason to believe that this great work will ultimately prove a commercial, as it has an engineering, success.