The section around the crossing of the River Ribble was never completed, and much of the southern end leased to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, of which it is now generally considered part.

The promoters sought an act of Parliament urgently, as proposals by the Leeds and Liverpool Canal to alter their route would have affected the profitability of the southern section.

By 1797 the aqueduct was completed, carrying the canal 62 feet (19 m) above the river, and boats were able to travel the 42.4 miles (68.2 km) from Preston to Tewitfield, known as the North End.

A formal opening ceremony was held on 27 November 1797, when six boats made the journey from Lancaster to the Lune aqueduct and back again, after which dinner was served at the King's Arms.

Work had been started on the South End, as it was officially known, in July 1793, when a contract for the length from Bark Hill near Wigan to Nightingales, near Chorley, had been let to Paul Vickers of Thorne.

He announced that 12 miles (19 km) of the South End was then open, as far north as Johnson's Hillock, and that the next section to Clayton Green was nearly completed, with the exception of the Whittle Hill tunnels.

Several options were considered, including linking to the Douglas Navigation, and although the Leeds and Liverpool agreed to improve that waterway, the Lancashire committee could not afford their part of the work.

[10] The existing South End canal was extended by 1 mile (1.6 km) from Clayton Green to Walton Summit, and a 259-yard (237 m) tunnel was constructed at Whittle Hill.

After his death, the project was completed by William Millar of Preston, and in July 1806, a Boulton and Watt steam engine began pumping water through the tunnel.

An agreement to start work was reached in 1813, and construction of the canal north of the locks, including Hincaster Tunnel and Killington Reservoir, was managed by William Crosley from May 1817.

The opening ceremony for the Northern Reaches, as this section would become known, was held on 18 June 1819, with a flotilla of boats followed by dinner and a ball at the Town Hall in Kendal.

There was opposition from Preston, who felt that the canal crossing of the Ribble was much more important, but the makeup of the committee meant that the Glasson Branch was preferred.

3. c. lxiv) in 1819, to authorise the raising of more capital, and to retrospectively sanction the construction of Killington reservoir and the branch to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal at Johnson's Hillock.

In 1813, when the northern extension to Kendal was about to be built, some of the Preston proprietors, led by a man called Shuttleworth, proposed a scheme to cross the Ribble on the level, which Fletcher decided was not practicable.

Shuttleworth then demanded a special general meeting in 1817, at which he suggested that the cost could be obtained by applying to the Exchequer Bill Loan Commission, but his proposal was defeated.

Goods carried included grain, timber, potatoes and slate, while the canal was also used to export coal bound for Ulverston, North Wales and Ireland.

During the seven years, the canal had made a profit of £67,391, which enabled them to pay off all their mortgages, award the proprietors a bonus of £1 17s 6d (£1 87.5p) per share and allocate £6,700 to a contingency fund.

[35] There was a local campaign for bridges to be built, so that restoration would be possible in the future, but the canal was culverted at the three locations where the motorway crossed it,[36] and at three more sites, where other roads were re-routed as part of the construction.

The remainder of the southern end, between Johnson's Hillock and Wigan Top Lock, is now considered to be part of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and remains well used by leisure traffic.

[34] In the early 1970s, the Inland Waterways Amenity Advisory Council had carried out a fact-finding survey of the northern reaches, and the Lancaster Canal Trust produced a report outlining possible ways forward.

Following discussions with the NWDA, the project was broken down into three phases, with the first covering the 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from Canal Head at Kendal to Natland Road.

[52] It did leak, and after much consultation, it was relined with large EPDM sheets, similar to pond liner, which was protected top and bottom by geotextile matting.

Refilling of the section began in December 2021,[54] and in the same month the Canal and River Trust, the successors to British Waterways, approved the work.

Funding was obtained for the restoration of the aqueduct with the main works commenced in August 2018 by construction firm Kier Group who have been employed by the Canal & River Trust.

Restoration, which included resurfacing of 1 mile (1.6 km) of towpath, was completed in 2020, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, a formal re-opening was delayed until October 2021, when the Lancaster Canal Regeneration Partnership hosted a month of festivities.

With the exception of Preston and the City of Lancaster, most of the canal runs through open countryside, while all of the navigable main line follows the same contour, and is therefore free of locks.

[65] The inlet from the canal to Garstang Marina is a visual reporting point (VRP) for general aviation aircraft in the local Blackpool airspace.

[66] Beyond Garstang, the canal passes through open countryside, with few villages,[67] before reaching the junction with the Glasson Dock branch, 24 miles (39 km) from Preston.

[68] At Hest Bank the canal comes close to the sea at Morecambe Bay,[70] and follows the coastline through Bolton-le-Sands, before turning inland at Carnforth.

[71] The Capernwray Arm, a short branch that once served a quarry, now offers secluded moorings to the east of the main line, and after passing along the western edge of Borwick, the navigable canal ends at Tewitfield Marina next to the M6 motorway,[72] which is 42.1 miles (67.8 km) from Preston.