Roman aqueduct
Rome's first aqueduct was built in 312 BC, and supplied a water fountain at the city's cattle market. By the 3rd century AD, the city had eleven aqueducts, sustaining a population of over a million in a water-extravagant economy; most of the water supplied the city's many public baths. Cities and towns throughout the Roman Empire emulated this model, and funded aqueducts as objects of public interest and civic pride, "an expensive yet necessary luxury to which all could, and did, aspire".
Architecture of Manchester
The Industrial Revolution gathered momentum after the Bridgewater Canal was opened to Castlefield on 10 July 1761. The canal brought coal to the town from Worsley and when in 1776 it had been extended, cotton could be shipped into the town from the Port of Liverpool. At Castlefield Basin are a series of early warehouses, such as the Dukes Warehouse and the Grocers Warehouse. By 1800 the Bridgewater at Castlefield was connected to the Rochdale Canal and beyond that to the Ashton Canal. On the Ashton Canal the Store Street Aqueduct designed by Benjamin Outram, is believed to be the first skewed aqueduct of its kind and the oldest still in use and a brick lock-keeper's cottage constructed about 1800 survives by Number 2 Lock.