The Rideau Canal from Ottawa, Canada’s capital city located at the intersection of the Rideau and Ottawa Rivers, to Kingston, Ontario on Lake Ontario at the head of the St. Lawrence River is not only a Canadian National Historic Site since 1925 but also a U.N.E.S.C.O. (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) World Heritage Site since 2007.
The Rideau Canal is the oldest continuously operated canal in North America. It stretches just over 125 miles (200 km) while utilizing two major river systems, the Rideau and the Cataraqui, along with 47 locks of which 45 are still operated by hand. In addition to the two rivers are 16 lakes and over 50 dams including the 360-foot long (110 m) 60-foot high (18 m) dam at Jones Falls. Four blockhouses were constructed along the canal’s route for military protection. These blockhouses, now restored, are still in place.
The natural height of land and head of the Rideau River at Upper Rideau Lake creates an elevation change of 272 feet (83 m) downstream northeasterly to the Ottawa River. In order of drainage from top to bottom is Upper Rideau Lake, Big Rideau Lake, and then Lower Rideau Lake. Likewise the natural height of land at neighbouring Newboro Lake, head of the Cataraqui River creates an elevation change of 164 feet (50 m) downstream southwesterly to Kingston on the St. Lawrence River.
Newboro Lock #36 between these two lakes is the official height of land of the canal and thus the location of the interchange of the red and green navigation markers to comply with the “red-right-returning” rule. This Newboro lock was converted to hydraulic-electric operation in the mid-1960s, one of only two locks along the system that are not hand operated. The Newboro lock is also the site of one of the four military blockhouses along the canal.
As we have seen so often with other waterways, the Rideau Canal was conceived as a military tool, again in this case following the war of 1812-1815 between Canada (Britain) and the United States. At the time, Canada was concerned about further attacks by the United States along the transportation corridor between two of Canada’s major defense positions at Montreal and Kingston, once the capital of Upper Canada (now Ontario). This transportation route was via the St. Lawrence River which at that time was narrow, infested with lengthy and dangerous rapids requiring portages and vulnerable to attack.
It was determined that from Montreal, utilizing the Ottawa River for 120 miles (195 km) as far as the mouth of the Rideau River, and then creating a waterway system to Kingston was the solution to bypassing the St. Lawrence River. In 1819, The Duke of Wellington agreed. A survey of the agreed route was completed in 1824, and in 1826, Lieutenant-Colonel John By of the Royal Engineers was brought out of retirement to supervise the construction of the canal.
When Lt-Col By started the building of the canal in 1826, there was almost no habitation where the Rideau and Ottawa Rivers met. He started by establishing a community for the canal labourers and others on both sides of the future canal. This community came to be known as Bytown. It officially changed its name to Ottawa in 1855 but the downtown Byward Market is still in existence to this day. “Ottawa” is an Anishinaabe word of the Algonquin people meaning “to trade.”
On the west side of the terminus of the planned canal was a hill known as Barrack’s Hill, on which a military fortress was planned on what would then be called Citadel Hill. This fortress was intended to guard over that end of the canal. The fortress never came to pass, but in 1857 Queen Victoria named Ottawa as Canada’s capital city as it was conveniently located on the border between Upper and Lower Canada, later to become the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec.
Also for military defense purposes, Ottawa was sufficiently removed from the border of the United States. In 1865, the construction of the Parliament Buildings was completed on this “hill” to thereafter serve the Dominion of Canada following Confederation two years later in 1867. The name of this hill changed once again and has forever since been known as Parliament Hill.
Lt-Col By eventually realized the last four miles (7 km) of the Rideau River, as it drained toward the Ottawa River, was not conducive to becoming a canal. First there was what is known as Hog’s Back Falls, and then right at the mouth of the Rideau River the twin outlets of the river cascade over the 36 ft (11 m) drop of the Rideau Falls into the Ottawa River.
So the Rideau Canal became a hand-dug channel from upstream of the Hog’s Back through two sets of flight locks (now Locks 9-10 and 11-12), the creation of Dow’s Lake, and onwards to east of Barrack’s Hill. Situated just over a mile (2 km) north of Hog’s Back Falls on the newly dug canal route, a huge swamp was dammed to create Dow’s Lake as a reservoir for the canal. A rail tunnel was later dug beneath Dow’s Lake by Canadian Pacific Railway. This tunnel is now used by Ottawa Transpo as part of a light-rail transit system. Dow’s Lake has consistently been a summer playground for the citizens of Ottawa and region.
From the foot of Barrack’s Hill, a flight of eight locks was constructed to accommodate the total of almost 80 feet (24 m) of drop to the level of the Ottawa River. At this point you are just over a mile or almost 2 kilometers west (upstream) from the Rideau River outlet via the Rideau Falls.
About half way up (or down!) this set of locks on the west side is the three-storey Commissariat Building, built in1827 as a military storehouse and office. It is the oldest building still standing in Ottawa and has been home of the Bytown Museum since 1917. Further up the west side of the canal are the magnificent Parliament Buildings, home to both houses of Canadian parliament and many federal government offices.
Look to the immediate east of the canal and take in the magnificence of the 429-room Fairmont Chateau Laurier Hotel. Now a Canadian National Historic Site, it was completed in 1912 by the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway as its showcase hotel. Listen closely and you may catch snippets of many thousands of political secrets and skullduggery held captive by its walls over time.
A few years ago, I wrote an article for BoatBlurb entitled Cruising the Historic Lower Ottawa River. In that article, I talked of the many boating highlights on the Ottawa River between Ottawa and Montreal. That article will fill you in on some of the history of the transportation route between Montreal and Ottawa at the time of the construction of the Rideau Canal. It will of course also describe the incredible pleasure boating delights available today along that section of waterway.
Earlier I mentioned 47 locks and over 50 dams along the Rideau Canal waterway system. The reason for so many dams is one of money. There were so many sections of long rapids and rough terrain along the proposed canal route that Lt-Col By decided he would employ a slack water method of construction. This system of construction employs the use of dams to raise the water level to cover over and flood obstructions like rapids. It also allows for the construction of shorter canal entrances to locks which can then be located in terrain that's easier to dig into. This method of construction was cheaper and required fewer labourers than building longer lock access canals around the obstructions and into terrain that would have been more difficult.
Construction of the canal started in late 1826 and was completed in early 1832. It can handle boats up to 90 feet (27 m) long by 26 feet (8 m) wide with a draft up to 5 feet (1.5 m). By the time of its completion, there were no urgent military needs for its use but it became a successful commercial waterway mainly for goods, but also for people traveling between Upper Canada and Montreal -- at that time Canada’s booming centre of commerce. The completion in 1849 of a series of locks along the St. Lawrence River, plus the building of railways, opened up more direct routes between Upper and Lower Canada thus virtually eliminating the need for the Rideau Canal for commercial purposes.
When the town of Perth determined that the Rideau Canal would not serve it, the town elders decided to connect the navigable Tay River from Perth to the canal. Thus the Tay Canal was born, the first version having been completed in 1834. But the locks were too small and the draft too shallow, causing the Tay canal to sit mostly unused in decay before being shut down in 1865. Then in 1885, a new design with deeper draft and locks the same size as the Rideau began. The project was completed in 1891. The new canal, still in use today, is just over six miles long (almost 10 km) connecting Lower Rideau Lake to the Tay River to Perth through two locks with a total elevation of 25 feet (7.6 m).
Since February 1971, the section of the Rideau Canal between the flight locks next to the Parliament Buildings and the flight locks at Hog’s Back and including Dow’s Lake is converted into the world’s largest skating rink. The ice sheet is almost 5 miles long (7.8 km) and runs the full width of the canal.
Make it a point to experience the Rideau Canal by boat. It is like a trip back in time through some of the most idyllic waters you will ever find and some of the most spectacular natural beauty anywhere. From Ottawa headed southwest, you will pass through some of the most delightful and accommodating tourism-oriented communities anywhere. First is Manotick, then Kars, Burritts Rapids, Merrickville, Smiths Falls, Perth on the Tay Canal, then Rideau Ferry, Portland, Westport, Newboro, Morton, Seeleys Bay, and finally the historic city of Kingston itself.
Plan a mini-circle or Loop-type route to include the Rideau Canal, the Ottawa River to Montreal, and either the St. Lawrence River back to Lake Ontario, or the Richelieu River and Lake Champlain to the Hudson and back up the Erie and Oswego Canals to Lake Ontario. There is just so much incredible boating still to be done. You might also like:
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