Rideau Canal

After the War of 1812, information was received about the United States' plans to invade the British colony of Upper Canada from upstate New York by following the St. Lawrence River.[8] This would have severed the lifeline between Montreal and the major naval base at Kingston. To protect against such an attack in the future, the British began construction or reinforcement of a number of defences including Citadel Hill in Halifax, La Citadelle in Quebec City, and Fort Henry in Kingston.[9]

To ensure safe passage between Montreal and Kingston, a new route was planned that would proceed westward from Montreal along the St. Lawrence, north along the Ottawa River to the mouth of the Rideau River, later the site of Bytown (now Ottawa), then southwest via canal to Kingston and out into Lake Ontario.[10] The Rideau would form the last portion of this route, along with shorter canals at Grenville, Chute-à-Blondeau and Carillon to bypass rapids and other hazards along the route.[11]

1845 painting of the canal and Lower Town by Thomas Burrowes

The construction of the canal was supervised by Lieutenant-Colonel John By of the Royal Engineers. Private contractors such as future sugar refining entrepreneur John Redpath, Thomas McKay, Robert Drummond, Thomas Phillips, Andrew White[12] and others were responsible for much of the construction, and the majority of the actual work was done by thousands of Irish, Scottish, and French-Canadian labourers. Colonel John By decided to create a slackwater canal system[13] instead of constructing new channels. This was a better approach as it required fewer workers, was more cost effective, and would have been easier to build.[14]

The lock at Lower Brewers nearing completion in 1831, by Thomas Burrowes

The canal work started in the fall of 1826, and it was completed by the spring of 1832. The first full steamboat transit of the canal was made by Robert Drummond's steamboat, Rideau (aka "Pumper"), leaving Kingston on May 22, 1832 with Colonel By and family on board, and arriving in Bytown on May 29, 1832.

The final cost of the canal's construction was £822,804 when all the costs, including land acquisition, were accounted for (January 1834). Because of the unexpected cost overruns, John By was recalled to London and was retired; he received no accolades or recognition for his tremendous accomplishment.[15]

Poonahmalee, on the Rideau River, near Smith Falls, Ontario – October 1906

Since the canal was completed, no further military engagements have taken place between Canada and the United States. Although the Rideau was not put to defensive use, it played a pivotal role in the early development of Canada and encouraged shipping, trade, and settlement of Upper Canada by tens of thousands of immigrants.

The canal was easier to navigate than the St. Lawrence River because of significant rapids in the river between Montreal and Kingston. As a result, the Rideau Canal became a busy commercial artery between Montreal and the Great Lakes. It was also used by tens of thousands of immigrants from the British Isles heading westward into Upper Canada in this period.

It was a major route for shipping heavy goods (timber, minerals, grain) from Canada's hinterland east to Montreal.[16] Hundreds of barge loads of goods were shipped each year along the Rideau; in 1841, for instance, some 19 steamboats, 3 self-propelled barges, and 157 unpowered or tow barges used the Rideau Canal.[16] The canal had to compete with the Erie Canal through New York State. Some of the shipments that might have been made from Kingston east, instead were taken to the opposite side of the St. Lawrence River to Oswego, New York. There they traveled by the Oswego Canal to reach the Erie and, via the Hudson River, New York City markets.

Businessmen in Kingston studied the issue. They considered building another canal to Lake Simcoe and on to the French River and Georgian Bay, thereby enabling traffic on the upper Great Lakes to use canals all the way to Montreal and avoid shipping through the entire lakes system. This plan eventually emerged as the Trent-Severn Waterway. It had originally been surveyed as a military route but never built. A simpler plan was to route around the dangerous parts of the St. Lawrence to allow direct shipping from Kingston to Montreal, and this was soon underway.[17]

By 1849, the rapids of the St. Lawrence had been tamed by a series of locks, and commercial shippers were quick to switch to this more direct route.[17] But commercial use of the Rideau largely ended after the Prescott and Bytown Railway was opened in December 1854. It provided faster service than shipping by the canal.

Further work improving the direct route continued along the St. Lawrence River. In the 1950s it was developed as the current Saint Lawrence Seaway, which allowed ocean-going ships access to the Great Lakes.

After the arrival of railway routes into Ottawa, most use of the canal was for pleasure craft. The introduction of the outboard motor led to an increase in small pleasure craft and increasing use of inland waterways like the Rideau and Trent-Severn. Today the Rideau forms part of the Great Loop, a major waterway route connecting a large area of the eastern United States and Canada.[18]

Brewer's Lower Mill – view down the Cataraqui Creek and clearing made for the Rideau Canal, 1829 by Thomas Burrowes

As many as one thousand of the workers died during the construction of the canal. Most deaths were from disease, principally complications from malaria[19] (P. vivax), which was endemic in Ontario within the range of the Anopheles mosquito, and other diseases of the day. Accidents were fairly rare for a project of this size; in 1827 there were seven accidental deaths recorded.[20] Inquests were held for each accidental death. The men, women and children who died were buried in local cemeteries, either burial grounds set up near work sites or existing local cemeteries. Funerals were held for the workers and the graves marked with wooden markers (which have since rotted away—leading to a misconception that workers were buried in unmarked graves).[20]

View on the Cataraqui Creek, Brewer's Upper Mills in the background, 1830 by Thomas Burrowes

Some of the dead remain unidentified as they had no known relatives in Upper Canada. Memorials have been erected along the canal route, most recently the Celtic Cross memorials in Ottawa, Kingston and Chaffeys Lock.[21] The first memorial on the Rideau Canal acknowledging deaths among the labour force was erected in 1993 by the Kingston and District Labour Council and the Ontario Heritage Foundation at Kingston Mills.

Three canal era cemeteries are open to the public today: Chaffey's Cemetery and Memory Wall at Chaffey's Lock—this cemetery was used from 1825 to the late 19th century; the Royal Sappers and Miners Cemetery (originally called the Military and Civilian Cemetery and then as the Old Presbyterian Cemetery) near Newboro—used from 1828 to the 1940s; and McGuigan Cemetery near Merrickville—used from the early 19th century (c. 1805) to the late 1890s.

The Rideau Canal was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1925, and marked with a federal plaque the next year, and again in 1962 and 2013.[22]

The canal has been featured on postage stamps issued by Canada Post. Two 45-cent stamps—'Rideau Canal, Summer Boating at Jones Falls'[23] and 'Rideau Canal, Winter Skating by Parliament'[24]—were issued on June 17, 1998, as part of the Canals and Recreational Destinations series. The stamps were designed by Carey George and Dean Martin, based on paintings by Vincent McIndoe. In 2014, the canal appeared on a $2.50 international rate stamp as part of a Canada Post set honoring World Heritage Sites.[25] The same design was reprised on a 2016 domestic-rate stamp.[26]

Looking up from the bottom of the Ottawa Lockstation of the Rideau Canal. Chateau Laurier in Center rear.

Rideau Canal Locks looking down towards the Ottawa River from Wellington Street

In 1993, British Waterways and Parks Canada agreed to twin the canal with the Caledonian Canal in Scotland.[27][28]

In 2000 the Rideau Waterway was designated a Canadian Heritage River in recognition of its outstanding historical and recreational values.[22]

In 2007 it was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site recognizing it as a work of human creative genius. The Rideau Canal was recognized as the best preserved example of a slack water canal in North America demonstrating the use of European slackwater technology in North America on a large scale. It is the only canal dating from the great North American canal-building era of the early 19th century that remains operational along its original line with most of its original structures intact. It was also recognized as an extensive, well preserved and significant example of a canal which was used for military purposes linked to a significant stage in human history – that of the fight to control the north of the American continent.[22]

A plaque was erected by the Ontario Archaeological and Historic Sites Board at Jones Falls Lockstation commemorating Lieutenant Colonel John By, Royal Engineer, the superintending engineer in charge of the construction of the Rideau Canal. The plaque notes the 123-mile-long (198 km) Rideau Canal, built as a military route and incorporating 47 locks, 16 lakes, two rivers, and a 360-foot-long (110 m), 60-foot-high (18.3 m) dam at Jones Falls (Jones Falls Dam), was completed in 1832.

Other plaques to the canal erected by the Ontario Heritage Trust are at Kingston Mills,[29] Smiths Falls,[30] and Rideau Lakes.[31]

The Rideau Canal uses a lock system that is still fully functioning.[33] The gates that let boats in and out of the locks last approximately 12–15 years.[38] When the canal was constructed, the gates were made at the lock sites by carpenters and blacksmiths,[38] but presently they are made in Smiths Falls, Ontario, and sometimes it takes up to two months to build a set of gates.[38] The gates used on the Rideau Canal are made of Douglas Fir and are mitre-shaped to ensure a tight seal due to water pressure.[39] The average Rideau Canal lock lift uses 1.3 million litres (1,300 m³; 1,700 cu yd or 290,000 imp gal; 340,000 US gal) of water.[39]

In normal operations the canal can handle boats up to 27.4 m (89 ft 11 in) in length, 7.9 m (25 ft 11 in) in width, and 6.7 m (22 ft) in height with a draft of up to 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) (boats drafting over 1.2 m (3 ft 11 in). In special circumstances a boat up to 33.5 m (109 ft 11 in) in length by 9.1 m (29 ft 10 in) in width can be handled.

Four blockhouses were built from 1826 to 1832 to provide protection for the canal which was under the control of the British Forces:

• Merrickville Blockhouse – used briefly during 1837 Rebellion, it became a residence for the lockmaster, upper floor removed in 1909 and restored in 1960 as a museum[40]
• Kingston Mills Blockhouse – used in 1837–1838, then enlarged to use as a residence, more alterations made in 1909 and restored to 1830 layout in the 1960s[41]
• Newboro Blockhouse – built by the British Ordnance Department, it was also used briefly for its intended military role in the 1830s and then converted to home for lockmaster; restored in 1960s to original blockhouse configuration.[42]
• Rideau Narrows Blockhouse – built by William H. Tett it was also altered in the 19th century to become lockmaster's residence and restored from 1967 to 1970 to its original layout.[43]

A fifth blockhouse at Burritts Rapids was partially built in 1832 before work was stopped with only the foundation and walls completed, then rebuilt in 1914–1915 and finally demolished to be replaced by the current lock station in 1969.[44]

The Commissariat Building is the oldest stone building still standing in Ottawa. It was built in 1827 as a storehouse for the British Military in Upper Canada. The building has three floors, a secure vault, two sets of staircases, and a block and tackle on the front for hauling goods into the upper floors.[45] After being divided into workshops and residential apartments, the Commissariat Building has housed the Bytown Museum since 1917.[46]

Parliament Hill was intended to be the site of a fortress, to be called Citadel Hill, where the canal ended at the Ottawa River.

• 
  At Merrickville
• 
  At Kingston Mills
• 
  At Newboro
• 
  At Rideau Narrows
• 
  Commissariat Building

The preparation for the Skateway starts as early as mid-October.[112] At the end of the boating season, the water is drained at the Ottawa locks near Parliament by Parks Canada.[112] Facilities on the ice such as shelters, chalets, and access ramps for vehicles are then installed.[112] Next, "beams are placed at the locks, and the water is raised to skating level."[112] After this step, the essentials are added such as stairs to access the ice, and hookups for both plumbing and electricity.[112] The ice cap that forms as the canal freezes becomes the Rideau Canal Skateway.[50] When the canal has built up a sufficient ice thickness, snow is removed from the ice surface and it is flooded in order to make the ice even more thick and smooth.[112] Samples of ice are tested for quality and thickness.[50] When it is safe to skate on, the Rideau Canal Skateway is opened for the season.

The Rideau Canal Skateway is maintained by the NCC (National Capital Commission).[50] The ice is maintained by crews 24 hours a day, seven days a week.[112] The snow and ice shavings are cleared off the surface every day and the ice surface is flooded each night with a "water dispersion machine" (weather permitting) to fill in any cracks caused by the contracting and expanding ice.[112] There are approximately 20 holes along the side of the Skateway that flood the ice surface to make it smoother for skaters.[112]

Two types of ice can form on the Rideau Canal Skateway, which are "white ice" and "clear ice".[50] White ice has a milky appearance with air bubbles, and is formed when snow and water mix and then freeze.[50] White ice can also be formed by mechanically flooding the ice surface with water to increase the thickness of the ice cap.[50] The other type of ice is called "clear ice", which has a colourless appearance and is formed when ice crystals build up below the frozen surface in cold temperatures.[50] If snow accumulates on the ice it can negatively impact the conditions for skating. Snow depresses the ice surface and slows down the formation of ice crystals beneath the surface.[50]

Ice conditions can be classified as very good, good, fair or poor.[113] They are updated twice daily by the NCC. The ideal ("very good") conditions mean there are "a limited number of pressure cracks", the ice is very hard and durable overall, the ice surface is clean and smooth, there are a "limited number of rough areas", and there is a "very good gliding surface."[113]