The Leeds & Liverpool Canal was the earliest of the trans-Pennine canals to be mooted, offering a gentler, less direct route than the Huddersfield Narrow and the Rochdale. But construction delays meant it only fulfilled its potential later in the 19th century. It was built in stages from either end over a period of almost half a century.

Together with the Aire & Calder Navigation, which it meets at Leeds, it offered a coast to coast route between the Irish Sea and the North Sea. At 127 miles long, the Leeds & Liverpool main line is the longest canal in the land historically run by a single company - and its branches, to Rufford and Leigh, add even more to the total. Only the Grand Union can beat this total, and that was a 20th century merger of several distinct canal companies. The summit level at Foulridge was opened in 1796.

Locks on the Leeds & Liverpool were for the most part built to a size of 62 feet by 14 feet (18.8m x 4.3m). The local cargo craft were known as 'short boats', broad-gauge vessels capable of carrying around 45 tons. The reservoirs built to supply the canal were never adequate, causing water shortages in dry summers. Inevitably, much freight deserted the canal for the railways and the roads at the first opportunity.

Nonetheless, the impressive payload of the short boats - around twice that of a standard narrowboat - enabled the line to prosper for many years, and commercial carriage of coal continued along the Leigh Branch to Wigan Power Station into the 1970s. To the west of the line, the canal's Rufford Branch replaced the earlier Douglas Navigation that was used to export coal from Wigan. It now gives access to the Ribble Estuary and then via the Ribble Link to the Lancaster Canal.