This structure is on the west bank of the River Irwell at the site of a major transport junction.
It was installed in 2017 as part of a development carried out at the same time as a new rail link was created including an arch railroad bridge over the river Irwell. This new short railway provides the first connection between Manchester Victoria and Manchester Piccadilly Railway Stations, 2 of Manchester's main railway stations.
The structure with the timeline consists of a series of concrete steps / seats that ascend from the river bank up to the road level. At the side of the structure is a concrete wall that contains a map showing all the transport links and the date they were constructed.
Some of the seats have a date and name of the transport link etched into the concrete starting from the bottom up to the top.
The dates involved are :-
1721 The Mersey and Irwell Navigation.
"The Mersey and Irwell Navigation was a river navigation in North West England, which provided a navigable route from the Mersey estuary to Salford and Manchester, by improving the course of the River Irwell and the River Mersey. Eight locks were constructed between 1724 and 1734, and the rivers were improved by the construction of new cuts several times subsequently. Use of the navigation declined from the 1870s, and it was ultimately superseded by the Manchester Ship Canal, the construction of which destroyed most of the Irwell section of the navigation and the long cut between Latchford and Runcorn."
link
1765 The Bridgewater Canal
"The Bridgewater Canal connects Runcorn, Manchester and Leigh, in North West England. It was commissioned by Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, to transport coal from his mines in Worsley to Manchester. It was opened in 1761 from Worsley to Manchester, and later extended from Manchester to Runcorn, and then from Worsley to Leigh."
link
1797 The Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal
"The Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal is a disused canal in Greater Manchester, England, built to link Bolton and Bury with Manchester. The canal, when fully opened, was 15 miles 1 furlong (24 km) long. It was accessed via a junction with the River Irwell in Salford."
link
1830 Liverpool and Manchester Railway
"The Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR) was the first inter-city railway in the world. It opened on 15 September 1830 between the Lancashire towns of Liverpool and Manchester in England. It was also the first railway to rely exclusively on locomotives driven by steam power, with no horse-drawn traffic permitted at any time; the first to be entirely double track throughout its length; the first to have a true signalling system; the first to be fully timetabled; and the first to carry mail."
link
The railway line crossed the river Irwell here on a stone arch bridge built by George Stephenson the famous early railway engineer.
In 1842 Victoria Station, a new larger replacement railway station was built and passenger traffic stopped crossing the Irwell and continued north on the east side of the Irwell. Goods trains continued to use the river crossing until 1975.
1845 Manchester South Junction and Altrincham Railway
"The Manchester South Junction and Altrincham Railway (MSJ&AR) was a suburban railway which operated an 8+1/2-mile (14 km) route between Altrincham in Cheshire and Manchester London Road railway station (now Piccadilly) in Manchester."
link
This railway line crosses the Irwell just to the south of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway bridge.
1860 Princes Bridge
This road bridge was built in 1860 to carry Hampston Street over the river Irwell from Salford on the western side of the river to the eastern side in Manchester.
1905 Princes Bridge
Princes bridge had to be rebuilt and there is a plaque on the bridge buttress commemorating this together with the coat of arms of both Salford and Manchester.
At some point road traffic was blocked from crossing Princes Bridge and it became a cycle and pedestrian bridge.
2017 Ordsall Chord
"Ordsall Chord, also known as the Castlefield Curve, is a short railway line in Ordsall, Salford, England, which links Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Oxford Road to Manchester Victoria, designed to increase capacity and reduce journey times into and through Manchester. It allows trains to run from Leeds, Newcastle and Redcar Central direct to Manchester Airport."
link
The chord connects the viaducts of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, that were constructed in 1842 when Victoria Station was built, to the viaducts of the Manchester South Junction and Altrincham Railway.
This short line also had to cross the River Irwell over the top of Princes Bridge and then a major dual carriage way road, the Trinity Way.
The existing Princes bridge was too high for this project and so was demolished for a second time and replaced with a lower pedestrian and cycle only bridge.
Because of height differences of the various structure that the chord connected the arch bridge over the Irwell crosses at a skewed angle and with different lengths of supporting arch at each end.