Moving Cargo
Canals and railways
The work of a port does not stop once the passengers have
disembarked or the container has been unloaded. Unless destined for
somewhere local, they or it have to be carried to distant towns or
factories. Prior to the 18th century, the easiest way to do this
was by water. Roads were poorly built and maintained and travel on
them slow and laborious. Hence many ports grew on or near rivers,
which allowed the cargo to be transferred to smaller vessels which
could penetrate far inland. An obvious way to extend the network of
waterways was to build canals. The 18th century saw a number of
these built. They usually connected manufacturing or mining areas
with ports. For instance, the Trent and Mersey Canal linking
Merseyside and the Midlands allowed china clay to be carried from
the Mersey to the Potteries in Staffordshire. The Grand Union
connected Birmingham with London. 
 Solent Freighter goods train in Southampton
docks |
When railways arrived in the first half of the 19th century,
they often served ports: think of the Liverpool and Manchester and
the Stockton and Darlington railways. The ports themselves would
often encourage the people who promoted railways or canals, as they
realised these transport arteries would expand their trade. For passengers, travel to a port would originally have meant
hitching a lift on a river boat, going by coach or horse for those
who could afford it, or walking for those who could not. With
canals, there were sometimes `fly boats`. These were pulled by
teams of horses which trotted along the bank and were changed
frequently to ensure fast journeys. The railways made fast travel
possible for the first time, and passenger travel by sea expanded
enormously, helped by the simultaneous development of the
steamship. For ports handling large numbers of passengers, stations
were built as close as possible to the ship`s berths.
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