#ottawa locks

[rabbitcruiser]

The Rideau Canal in eastern Ontario was opened on May 30, 1832.  

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Ottawa Locks, 1930-31

[rabbitcruiser]

The Rideau Canal in eastern Ontario was opened on May 30, 1832.  

[spockvarietyhour]

Ottawa Locks, 1991

[rabbitcruiser]

The Rideau Canal in eastern Ontario was opened on May 30, 1832.

[rabbitcruiser]

The Rideau Canal in eastern Ontario was opened on May 30, 1832.  

[rabbitcruiser]

The Rideau Canal in eastern Ontario was opened on May 30, 1832.  

[rabbitcruiser]

Ottawa Locks

One of 24 lockstations, Ottawa Locks, with its flight of eight locks is more than just an item of passing historic interest. These locks represent an amazing engineering achievement in the middle of the Canadian wilderness of the early 19th century and became the focus around which the city of Ottawa grew. The locks connect the channel of the Rideau Canal in Ottawa to the Ottawa River, almost 80 ft. (24.4 m) below.

The Rideau River falls 30 ft. (9.1 m) in a set of twin falls, downstream of the locks, into the Ottawa River. The word rideau is French for curtain, the appearance of the falls to Samuel de Champlain, who travelled up the Ottawa River in 1613. Samuel Clowes, who surveyed the entire Rideau route in 1824, proposed to have the canal connect with the Ottawa a few hundred yards downstream of the Rideau Falls. However, in 1826, Colonel By and a young engineer, Lieutenant Henry Pooley, travelled west to Wright's Town at Chaudière Falls, and decided, after inspection, that this location would be best.

In 1827, John Pennefeather (Pennyfather according to Legget) was awarded the contract to do the excavation work for the locks. The masonry contract was awarded to Thomas McKay, a young Scottish immigrant to Canada, born in Perth in 1792. McKay had been a partner with John Redpath (of Redpath Sugar) on the building of the Lachine Canal in Montreal. McKay stayed on in the Bytown district. In 1838, McKay built a magnificent stone mansion for himself with his most skilled masons. Today it is known as Rideau Hall, the residence of Canada's Governor-General – yet another legacy to the Rideau Canal. Other names associated with the construction of the Ottawa Locks are: Walter Fenlon, Philemon Wright (the founder of Hull) and Colonel By's Chief Clerk of Works, John MacTaggart.

In September, 1831, the steamboat, Union, was the first vessel to pass through the Ottawa Locks. Even though the locks are in the middle of a major urban centre, they still maintain the tranquil beauty and charm that characterize a typical Rideau lockstation.

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