Short answers, pulled from the story.
Francis Egerton, the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, commissioned the canal to transport coal from his mines at Worsley to Manchester. Existing methods, river transport via the Mersey and Irwell Navigation and packhorse haulage, were expensive and inefficient.
The canal opened in 1761 from Worsley to Manchester. The section from Worsley to Manchester cost £168,000 to construct; the total cost, including the extension to Runcorn, was £220,000.
The canal required an aqueduct at Barton-upon-Irwell to carry boats across the River Irwell, and an underground canal at Worsley that extended to 46 miles on four levels. Work on the Barton Aqueduct began in September 1760 and the first boat crossed on the 17th of July 1761.
Within a year of the canal opening in 1761, the price of coal in Manchester fell by roughly half. The canal's success helped inspire Canal Mania, a period of intense canal building across Britain.
James Brindley provided the technical expertise. After a six-day visit he proposed the revised route across the River Irwell, then spent 46 days surveying it. The duke and his estate manager John Gilbert had produced the original plan, and parliamentary approval was secured in 1759.
The canal remains operational and is privately owned, making it one of the few canals in Britain never to have been nationalised. Commercial freight traffic ended in 1975; the canal is now used mainly by pleasure craft and forms part of the Cheshire Ring network. The navigation is currently closed at Dunham following a breach on New Year's Eve 2024.