 Significant parts of the canal were completed by 1796 , including the stretch up to Bury in October of that year . With the completion of the Bolton arm in the following year , much of the canal opened for business . The connection to Fletcher 's Canal was completed in 1800 , but with the failure of the scheme to connect the Bolton arm of the canal to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal , the canal remained isolated from any other navigable waterway . One proposed remedy involved the construction of an aqueduct over the River Irwell in Manchester , to connect directly to the Rochdale Canal between Castlefield and Piccadilly . A bill was proposed in 1799 but after strong objections from the Mersey and Irwell Navigation Company they eventually gave up and subsequently , over the following seven years , the canal company purchased enough land to build a canal link directly to the Irwell . 
