'Slender and elegant': How the Mancunian Way cut the city centre in half - and could have had a very different name
It's our very own 'highway in the sky'. And while today it might be grey, grimy and often choked with traffic, when it first opened in May 1967, the Mancunian Way was praised for its 'slender and elegant' appearance and hailed as the future of urban transport.
"It is a lateral route along the southern fringe of the central area of the city and its primary function is to carry the traffic, much of it commercial, moving between the industrial areas on the east side of Manchester and in Yorkshire, and the Manchester docks, Trafford Park and Liverpool, all of which are west of Manchester," the brochure reads. "Formerly most of this traffic had to pass directly through the central area and in consequence caused considerable congestion.
The name was chosen by schoolchildren following a competition across the north west to name the new road with a prize of a £5 book token. Five school children jointly chose the winning name and had to share the prize. The Guardian described it as 'surprisingly good', adding: "The actual structure is extremely light and elegant in appearance." But there were one or two teething problems.
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