ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with the history of the Manchester Ship Canal, both in terms of its decline as a shipping corridor and as a setting for canal-side open spaces such as Moore Nature Reserve, Wigg Island, Woolston Eyes, and Trafford Ecology Park. The experience with the Manchester Ship Canal, of an urban man-made watercourse that comes to be viewed as part of the natural landscape, is also happening in other cities, such as Los Angeles, California and Portland, Oregon in the United States. The annual amount of freight moving through the Manchester Ship Canal peaked in 1958 at 18 million long tons but changes in the shipping sector resulted in declines in the 1970s and 1980s. Wigg Island is reached via a swing bridge over the Manchester Ship Canal. The Manchester Ship Canal was built in a different era to serve different purposes, and its economic decline was caused by different forces and different technologies.
