This blog is about the lesser known but beautiful, wonderful, huge, unique and sometimes bizarre places around the World. Started on January 1, 2009, it is an outcome of my association with Google Earth Community, which I joined in July 2006. Since then I have been regularly flying to almost all the corners of WWW (Whole Wide World) and have virtually adopted the age old motto - Perfect time to see the World is after retirement.
Google Earth Community Forum is full of information which ranges from, but not limited to; history, geography, nature, environment, architecture, military, transportation, beliefs, festivals, huge, unique, bizarre items, current happenings etc etc.
My favourite section in the Community is "Fun and Games" - in which members post riddles and puzzles on almost all subjects and generally give hints for searching and locating the relevant places and or events on Google Earth. I have made several hundred posts in this forum and must have solved about the same number, though several were beyond my grasp. Believe me it is not easy to solve these riddles - Finding the answer is 90% perspiration (research) and 10% inspiration but it is pure 100% joy and sense of exhilaration.
This forum provides a stimulus to my brain and keeps it active. I strongly recommend this for those who have time and penchant for solving puzzles, but a word of warning – it is highly addictive.
My travels around the World are not limited to Fun and Games only, however many of the places being covered in this travelogue were found as a result of my researches for making posts in Fun and Games or trying to solve the riddles given therein.
The Original Google Earth Community was frozen by Google in April 2015 and finally killed in April 2019. However the dedicated moderators of the defunct Original GEC created a new Board for the GEC enthusiasts and the new Community is known as "Google Earth Community Forums". This new community continues to function as the old GEC but is independent of google.com
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The Barton swing aqueduct on the Manchester Ship Canal is not only the
World's first swing aqueduct, it is also World's only such aqueduct. Built in
1894 it is considered as an engineering marvel for that time.
The aqueduct located near Barton upon Irwell, Greater Manchester, carries the
Bridgewater Canal over Manchester Ship Canal. Unlike other aqueducts, it swings
open to allow movement of large ships in the Manchester Canal. In closed potion
it allows passage of smaller boats plying in the Bridgewater Canal to cross the
Manchester Canal below it.
This is second aqueduct at the location. The first one built 1761 was a
conventional masonry aqueduct with fixed spans. The old aqueduct carried the
Bridgewater Canal over River Irwell. Later with the construction of Manchester
Ship Canal running parallel to the river, the height of old aqueduct was found
to be inadequate for passage of larger ships in the Manchester Ship Canal. It
was therefore replaced in 1894 by the present swing aqueduct and is in use even
today.
The swing aqueduct consists of iron trough supported in a steel girders
frame, which is mounted on a centre pivot allowing it to be rotated by 90
degrees. The moving portion of the aqueduct is 71.6m (235 ft.) long and 7.3m (24
ft) wide. The trough which sits inside the frame is 5.5m (18 ft) wide and 2.1m
(6.9 ft) deep. Both the fixed portion as well as the moving portion of the
aqueduct have rubber wedge gates on each end to retain the water in the canal as
well as in the trough. Total weight of the swing aqueduct is 1,450-tonne which
includes about 800 tonnes of water.
The swing mechanism rests on a purpose built island in the
middle of the Manchester Ship Canal. As per
Wikipedia "the
turning mechanism built into the central island consists of a 27-foot (8.2 m)
race plate embedded in granite blocks. Sixty-four tapered cast iron rollers sit
on top of the race plate, held in position by a spider ring. On top of that an
upper race plate supports the aqueduct and its circular gear rack, which was
powered by a hydraulic engine."
The hydraulic engine was initially powered by two steam
boilers located on one of the bank of the Manchester Canal. Later the the
hydraulic force was obtained using electric pumps.
The control room for controlling the opening/closing of the
aqueduct and movement of the ships is located in a 4 storied tower in the middle
of the island. Nearby swing bridge for road traffic is also controlled from this
tower.
Following picture shows the swing aqueduct (left) and swing
bridge (right) in fully closed position.
The aqueduct in closed position allowing the boat to cross over the
Manchester Canal. Originally it had a towpath along its length about
2.7 m (9 feet) above the water level but it was subsequently removed. Image from geograph.org.uk is by Peter Whatley
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