Experiencing the Anderton Boat Lift

David Johns has another great video on his YouTube Channel Cruising The Cut, this time of the Anderton Boat Lift. I’ve gone through the Falkirk Wheel lift in Scotland, which is an elegant construction that looks like a giant mobile. The Anderton, however, is this hulking Victorian monstrosity that really should belch steam and fire as it operates. It connects the Trent & Mersey Canal with the River Weaver, raising and lower boats 50 feet in a pair of hydraulically powered caissons—one goes up while one goes down. It’s a gloriously brutal machine that I hope I can experience sometime.