This metropolitan county that is located in North West England is called Greater Manchester, and it is sprawled over one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom. It contains 10 metropolitan boroughs such as Bury, Bolton, Oldham, Rochdale, Tameside, Stockport, Trafford, Wigan, and also the cities of Salford and Manchester.

Where as Greater Manchester was established on 1 April 1974 from the result of the Local Government Act 1972. Greater Manchester is inland and shares borders with Cheshire in the south west and south, West Yorkshire in the north east, Derbyshire in the south east, Merseyside to the west and Lancashire to the north. The Greater Manchester Urban Area is the third most densely populated area in the UK and it stretches across in most of the county’s territory. Greater Manchester has a Lord Lieutenant and a High Sheriff as it is a ceremonial county,

Greater Manchester County Council was ceased in 1986 and its districts or the metropolitan boroughs have now effectively become unitary authority areas. However, this 496 square miles or 1,285 km2 metropolitan county, continues to exist in law and as a geographic feature. Association of Greater Manchester Authorities provides several county wide services.

No doubt the modern county of Greater Manchester was established in 1974, but its history goes back into the centuries. The proof is from Iron Age settlements found at Mellor. Later on it was inhabited by Brigantes. First century forts are also found here. Many proofs about the presence of Romans are also found here.

During the Industrial Revolution it was found that industries related to domestic cloth and textile manufacture did had a foothold at Manchester. Some of the adjoining market cities and centers played an important role in trading woolen clothes. Much of its capacity to manufacture cloth came to the fore during the Industrial Revolution.

Manchester progressed rapidly and around the turn of 19 the century many more towns came into existence, helping the county economically. It now had become one of the Earths most productive and significant mill town. So an administration change was proposed in 1910.

However, the English term Greater Manchester was used in a report in 1914 and it was significantly recognized area. An innovative urban planner Sir Patrick Geddes wrote in his 1915 book that another Greater London was mushrooming up. It shares its borders with ancient counties West Riding of Yorkshire Cheshire and the Lancashire.

Many counties lost, some gained land and changed their respective boundaries for years, until people were fed up with these alterations. The whole system was criticized as it could not keep pace with changing government responsibilities.

Eventually in 1947 a three ridings system was launched, which created Manchester County Council, a directly elected regional body. From 1951, the census started reporting as a same collection on South East Lancashire.

In Greater Manchester, public transport services are controlled by the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive or GMPTE, The council had all the responsibility for planning strategies and all policy decisions regarding public transport and highways.

GMPTE’s purpose was to secure the provision of a completely unified and proper system of passenger transport to meet the requirements of its region. In 1977, it was calculated to be the biggest authority related to public transport in the UK after London’s public Transport.

Greater Manchester is located in the heart of the North West transport system. Much of the infrastructure is focused on the City of Manchester. With the massive network of several roads, circulate the city centre.
There is a very vast bus transport network which starts from Manchester City Centre. The largest provisions are available on First Manchester to the north side of the county and Stagecoach Manchester for the south sides.

Inclusive to the network of bus routes, Manchester Metrolink, a light rail system started operating in 1992. An extension of the network is to begin by 2008, which will see the network cover all boroughs except Bolton and Wigan.

The national rail network is owned and controlled by Network Rail and is controlled by a private owners. Fourth largest airport in the United Kingdom Manchester Airport, serves the county with many flights to more destinations than all airports in the UK. Since June 2007, it has operated 225 routes. The airport has handled millions of passengers in 2007.

Manchester organized the 2002 Commonwealth Games, which cost UK £200M for the sports amenities and a further £470M for local functioning of the systems. By far it was the biggest and most expensive sporting event ever hosted by the UK and the first to be a necessary part of urban rejuvenating. A mix of new and existing facilities was used.

New facilities that was included to the Manchester Aquatics Centre, Bolton Arena, the City of Manchester Stadium and the National Squash Centre. The Manchester Velodrome was constructed to be a part of the bid to host the 2000 Olympics. Later, when the Commonwealth Games were over, the City of Manchester Stadium was changed as a football arena. The adjoining athletic tracks were refurbished and they did become the Regional Athletics Arena.

In the game of football, four Greater Manchester teams will take part and play in the 2008-09 Premier League. Manchester United F.C. along with one of the world’s best known professional football teams and by April 2008, Forbes had guessed that they were the world’s wealthiest football club.

They at present are the Premier League and UEFA Champions League champions. They have won the league championship seventeen times, the FA Cup a record eleven times and have been European champions three times.

In rugby league too, Wigan Warriors will compete in the Super League. They have already won the Super League Championship seventeen times, the Challenge Cup seventeen times and the World Club Challenge thrice.

Lancashire County Cricket Club started as Manchester Cricket Club and represented the old county of Lancashire. Lancashire took part in the foremost and original 1890 County Championship. Eight times, this team has won the County Championship and in 2007 ended playing third, missing their first title by a whisker since 1950. Their ancient Trafford ground, which is situated near the football stadium by the identical name, often hosts test matches. The most famous possibly is the one that took place in 1956, when Jim Laker took a record nineteen wickets in the fourth test against the Aussies.

A stadium at Balle Vue is home of top flight speedway and greyhound racing. Ice hockey returned after 2007, when a deliberately designed stadium was prepared.

Horse racing had taken its place at various sites in the county. The two best and biggest courses were both known as Manchester Racecourse, though neither of them was within its boundaries and they functioned from the 17th century until 1963.

Athletics also takes place at the Regional Athletics Arena in Sportcity, which has played a host too many national trials, at Robin Park in Wigan, Longford Park in Stretford, which is the home to Trafford Athletic Club, Woodbank Stadium in Stockport, which is the home to Stockport Harriers and the Cleavleys Track in Winton where Salford Harriers stay. As of 2008, new sports facilities including a huge 10,000 capacity stadium and athletics arenas are being made at Leigh Sports Village.