At the age of 22 the Duke became actively involved with his Worsley estates and, along with his agent John Gilbert, started addressing the problems associated with transporting coal from his mines. Improvements to the River Sankey Navigation had diverted trade to other collieries and he desperately needed new markets and a cheap form of transportation. His first plan was to construct a waterway from his Worsley mines to Barton, thereby getting access to the River Irwell and thence to Manchester. However, the Mersey and Irwell Navigation Company refused to cooperate and the Duke started considering a cross-country waterway from his colliery to Salford, near Manchester.
One year later, in March 1759, the Duke successfully obtained an Act of Parliament that authorized the work to begin and in the summer of that year he employed James Brindley as the "Engineer" for the canal. Brindley, a millwright, had gained a reputation as an innovative mechanic and engineer and a year earlier, at the request of canal enthusiast Lord Glover, had surveyed a possible line for a canal from the Trent to the Mersey.
In 1760 the original plan was modified to take the canal right into Manchester via an aqueduct over the River Irwell at Barton. However, like many to follow, the Duke ran into financial problems and had to take drastic measures. He mortgaged his estates, sold his London home and borrowed from relatives, Lord Glover, Manchester manufacturers, local farmers and the Child & Co. Bank. Amid a general lack of confidence and ridicule the Duke, the Author; Mr. Gilbert the Executive and Mr. Brindley the Implementor pushed ahead. Somehow they managed to get the funding and, by 1765, had completed a broad, level waterway connecting Worsley to the Manchester area.
While this part of "The Duke's Canal" was being constructed, extensive excavation at the mines was taking place. This resulted in an elaborate network of multi-level subterranean waterways that eventually covered a distance of 46 miles; the levels being linked by an ingenious inclined plane constructed along a fault in the sandstone. The coal was loaded into flat bottomed, double-ended "Starvationer" boats. So called because of the series of wooden "ribs" that joined the bottom to the sides. Loaded with as much as 12 tons of coal, these boats were then hauled to the mine's entrances at Worsley Delph and then five or six of them linked together and drawn along the canal by a single horse or two mules. After a few years these conveys were replaced with barges.
During the design and construction of the first Barton Aqueduct the illiterate Brindley was mocked and scorned and told by many learned gentlemen that his scheme for crossing the Irwell was doomed to failure. Undaunted, he proceeded and built a majestic stone structure crossing the river on three high arches. (Note: In recent years some researchers have presented material suggesting that Mr. Gilbert was largely responsible for the design of this aqueduct). The building of the Manchester Ship Canal in the 1890s resulted in Brindley's stone aqueduct being replaced with an equally outstanding steel swing aqueduct designed by Sir Edward Leader Williams.
An extension down to the Mersey at Runcorn was approved in 1762. Ten years later its construction was completed after overcoming two major challenges; one, the crossing of the boggy ground on the way to Runcorn and the other, the construction of locks to connect the canal to the Mersey. The latter created almost as much excitement as the famous aqueduct.
The time and effort put into building the waterway began to show rewards and by the late 1760s the Duke had repaid his debts and the canal became a financial success; not only as a commercial enterprise but also as a popular tourist attraction.
The Worsley to Leigh section was approved in 1795 but another 25 years would pass before the Leeds & Liverpool Canal was linked to the "Duke's Canal".