Dow's Lake Preview

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1. West Bank of the Canal, near the National Arts Centre

Your tour begins on the western bank of the Rideau Canal just below the National Arts Centre, a fully bilingual, multi-disciplinary home for the performing arts here in the Nation’s Capital. Lieutenant-Colonel John By of the British Corps of Royal Engineers led the construction of the Rideau Canal. By's challenge was to link Montréal to Kingston inland avoiding the St. Lawrence River which was the only navigable route at the time. Following the War of 1812, which saw the British at war with the Americans over control of the northern part of North America, the British were afraid that the Americans would attack their ships as they transported supplies and goods to Kingston and further on into Upper Canada. One of Lieutenant-Colonel By’s challenges was that the route chosen was only partially navigable by water.

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2. West Bank of the Canal, at Confederation Park

It took thousands of workers to build the Rideau Canal by creating channels, digging trenches, transporting stones and erecting dams and locks. It was a massive project realized in only five and a half years. Skilled and unskilled workers of varying trades contributed to the project in very difficult working conditions. Worker groups from England, Ireland, and Scotland were the majority. The British Military was in charge of the project. Its Royal Sappers and Miners participated in the engineering work building the bridges, channels and roads for the Canal. The Scottish brought their talent for expert masonry to the Canal, while the Irish provided the hard labour. French Canadians, who had developed a certain expertise in the logging industry were the second largest group after the Irish to assist with the project. This region has been part of the Algonquin’s traditional unceded territory for thousands of years.

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4. Near Corktown Pedestrian Bridge

As you pass the Corktown Bridge, notice the University of Ottawa on the opposite side of the Rideau Canal. First established as the College of Bytown in 1848, today it is the largest English/French bilingual university in the world.For all the great effort and speed that was used to bring about the creation of the Rideau Canal as an alternate military route, it never actually served the purpose for which it was designed. However, it quickly become an important commercial trade route. It supported the transport of agricultural and industrial products inland to settlements popping up along the Canal, as well as the movement of lumber, which was an important part of the region's economy.

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5. Northeast of the Armenian Embassy (7 Delaware Avenue)

More than 180 years ago this area was called Bytown. Named after Lieutenant-Colonel By, a work camp-turned-town gradually took shape along the canal due to its construction. Lieutenant-Colonel By designed the town in a grid plan and later on, it would become the city you see here today.Cut from the forests north and west of the settlement, logs floated down the Ottawa and Gatineau rivers to a place near Bytown where logs they were assembled in immense rafts and moved by water to Quebec. From there, the wood was loaded onto ships and transported to England.Throughout the 19th century, the Ottawa region was a hub for the lumber trade. There are photographs of the types of large rafts that could be seen along the Ottawa River at the time.

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6. Pretoria Bridge

Look behind you. You just went under Pretoria Bridge. This bridge is unique because of its medieval look and the way it functions. As a lift-bridge, the main platform is mechanised to move up and down to allow for the passage of taller boats on the Canal. Its imposing towers give the impression that it could have been built a long time ago, but it was actually built as a replacement bridge within the last fifty years, for a structure that was originally built between 1915 and 1916.

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7. North of Patterson Creek Gardens

To your right are the Patterson Creek Gardens. At the beginning of the 20th century, this space was full of industrial buildings. Today in their place we find parks, flower gardens, a creek, a man-made island, a pagoda-like pavilion, and panoramic trails. See what this place looked like before it was transformed.

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8. Queale Terrace

To your right, across the street, notice Queale Terrace, one of the first residential developments on what was once considered the outskirts of Ottawa in this area known as the Glebe. This building was built at the beginning of the 20th century. Today, the Glebe is a bustling neighbourhood known for its strong sense of community, little shops, restaurants, and interesting architecture.

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9. Canal Ritz Restaurant

The Rideau Canal is a hub of recreational activity. Over the years, it has hosted its share of people running, rollerblading, canoeing, and cycling. In winter, it is transformed into a 7.8 km long ice rink called the "Rideau Canal Skateway". Since the beginning of the 20th century, the Rideau Canal has been a favourite gathering spot for leisure enthusiasts.

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10. Entrance to Lansdowne Park

Lansdowne Park is one of Ottawa’s most popular heritage sites. Since its opening, it has hosted agricultural exhibitions, concerts, sporting and cultural events, and even royal visits. Notice the Aberdeen Pavilion. Built at the end of the 19th century, its architecture was inspired by the Crystal Palace, the exhibition hall created for the 1851 Great Expedition in London. The Aberdeen Pavilion was originally intended to host the 10th annual Central Canadian Exhibition. As the only major 19th century exhibition building to be preserved in Canada, it was designated a national historic site in 1983.

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11. In Front of the Lansdowne Park Stadium

Many Canadian Football League fans will know that Lansdowne Park is the home of the Ottawa Redblacks sport franchise. As recently as 2016, the Redblacks won the coveted Grey Cup football championship. Before the Redblacks, Ottawa’s home football team was the Ottawa Rough Riders. Historically, the Rough Riders won their first Grey Cup here at Lansdowne Park in 1925. Thousands of sporting events have been played out within this special community gathering place.

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12. Near Brown's Inlet

Continuing through the Glebe, it should be noted that this area's name can be traced back to 1837 when much of the land was owned by St. Andrews Presbyterian Church. The term "glebe", refers to "ecclesiastical or church lands". Being located beyond the original boundaries of the settlement, the Glebe took a long time to develop. By 1870, only a few industries and businesses were located along the Rideau Canal and along what became Bank Street. Very few residences occupied the lands. With time, economic conditions improved. In order to provide increased government services to the local population, more government staff and accompanying housing were needed. The gradual subdivision of the church’s lands and those of large landowners in the area was how this neighbourhood came to be.

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13. Green Space

At Commissioners' Park every May, you can witness this green space come to life with wonderful colourful beds of tulips. Here you can find over 300,000 tulips blooming. Because this is Ottawa’s highest concentration of tulips in one area, it is the perfect location for the Canadian Tulip Festival which is held every spring, drawing in thousands of tourists from all over the world. These flowers are a gift to Canada from the Netherlands for sheltering the young Princess Juliana and her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during Second World War.

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14. Dow's Lake (A)

Today, Dow’s Lake is always alive with activity, however prior to construction of the Rideau Canal, it did not actually even exist as a lake. Rather, it was a vast, dense swamp on property owned by Abraham Dow in the early 19th century. As part of the construction of the Rideau Canal, contractors Jean St-Louis and Philemon Wright and Sons built up the banks necessary for the transformation of the marsh into a lake. In addition, a dam was constructed at each end of the Canal for control of the water. A large reservoir lake was thus created here to maintain water levels that would allow vessels to flow through the downstream channel. At one time there was even a causeway or carriageway which crossed Dow’s Lake from east to west. When the water level is low, the remnants of this road can still be seen.

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15. Dow's Lake (B)

In 1938, a French architect named Jacques Gréber was entrusted with the development of Ottawa and its region. More than 12 years later, from his visionary plan for Ottawa, a city of federal institutions bordered by bucolic promenades along the Rideau Canal was born.

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16. Dow's Lake Pavilion

Today, the Rideau Canal is highly regarded by the international community as a Canadian treasure, not only for its beauty and wonderful surroundings, but also for its unique engineering design and its significant history. The Rideau Canal is one of Canada’s most important heritage sites, and as of 2007, is a UNESCO World Heritage site just like the Pyramids of Gaza, the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China! Throughout this tour along the Rideau Canal, seeing the different faces of Ottawa since its inception, there is no doubt that this city has not only grown up around the Canal, but has developed because of it.This is where your tour ends. We hope you enjoyed your tour of the Canal!

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3 An Ecosystem

With its woodlands, wetlands, and bodies of water, the natural setting of the Rideau Canal plays a key role in the Ottawa region's ecosystem. Here, life teems under the water and on the edge of the Canal. If you look closely, you might spot a bass or black crappie or another of the 30 species found in the Rideau River and its tributaries. In addition to mollusks and aquatic invertebrates, the ecosystem contains a large number of amphibians, reptiles, aquatic plants and algae. Several mammals, such as otters, as well as about twenty species of birds, also live along the banks of the Canal.

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