Canada - Rideau Waterway - July 2006
The 'Flight of 8' locks forms a grand stairway entrance into the capital city of Ottawa as well as the Rideau Canal.
On the recommendation of the Duke of Wellington, the Rideau was completed in 1832 by the British as a secure military waterway that would be defensible against American invasion. The major waterway in use at the time was the St. Lawrence which was open to attack by the Americans. Lt. Colonel John By, of the Royal Engineers, was commissioned to lead the project, and he determined the path of the waterway from the Ottawa river down to Kingston on Lake Ontario.
The city of Ottawa did not exist when the project was started. Lt. Colonel John By founded the town as a base of operations for the canal construction and it was informally called 'Bytown' in his honor at the time. The city grew after the completion of the canal and it was renamed Ottawa in 1855 in honor of the grand river that flowed by its banks. It was selected as the capital city of Canada in 1857 by Queen Victoria.
The Rideau waterway follows a path first used by the First Nation inhabitants and makes use of existing rivers and lakes where possible. The canal construction included cutting canals where needed and adding the necessary locks and dams to permit transit of steamships through the system.
The canal covers 126 miles and consisted of 47 locks at the time it was constructed. Some of the locks have been combined, so that the current system uses 44 locks - 30 to raise you up 274 feet from the water level of the St. Lawrence waterway and 14 to gently lower you down 165 feet to the water level of Lake Ontario. Most of the locks continue to use the manual locking system designed for the canal when it was constructed.
At the time it was completed, it was an engineering marvel. Completed in under 6 years, the canal was cut through virgin forest and along untamed waterways without any of the machinery or tools we take for granted today. The system includes a curved stone dam which at 350 feet along its crest and 60 feet high was the largest in North America at the time it was completed.
True to the completion of many difficult projects, praise and honors go to the non-participants and blame to the ones who completed the work. Lt. Colonel By was recalled to England at the completion of the canal not to be congratulated but to answer charges for cost overruns. Unfortunately and unknown to By at the time, the project had only been granted an official expenditure of 5000 pounds for the initial investigations. The actually cost was about 800,000 pounds - not much even in those days considering the size and complexity of the project. Fortunately, Colonel By kept excellent records and was able to account for all expenditures. He was exonerated, but never received the honors which should have been his for his accomplishments. He died in 1936, 4 years after the canal's completion due to complications from malaria he contracted while working in Canada.
The Canadians have not forgotten what Lt. Colonel John By did for the them or the city of Ottawa. There is a wonderful statue of him in the city overlooking the canal that he helped to build.
Following is a map of the Rideau canal showing it's path from Ottawa to Kingston.
We saw these canoes coming out of a lock shortly after leaving Ottawa as we headed down the Rideau.
Wandering around Smith's Falls, we found the Kwik-E-Mart. Jeremy was asking about Apoo - when we noticed the picture in the window.
Smiths Falls is the Chocolate capital of Ontario since it is the home base of Hershey Canada. Hershey has a chocolate factory located about 1 mile out of town. We walked over and the aroma as we neared the factory was intoxicating. I think I gained 5 pounds just inhaling the air!
Tardis docked at Smiths Falls Parks Canada dock.
Most of the docks as well as the swing bridges on the Rideau are manually operated. These are pictures of the swing bridge at Smith's Falls being opened by the lock attendant.
The Rideau follows an interesting, if sometimes confusing route one you enter the lakes. We found several helpful 'Rideau Road Signs' pointing us in the right direction. The admonishment to slow down was due to the narrow passages and blind corners that you navigate as you pass from one lake to the next.
Boathouse and swim platform on Upper Rideau Lake.
Upper Rideau Lake was filled with small rocky islands reminiscent of Maine - only without the lobster pots.
We found a bit of space at one of the floating docks near the Smith Falls Dam. Unfortunately it was a bit shallow under the bow when we got in. Those are weeds sprouting around the bow of Tardis at the dock. We measured with the lead line and we found ourselves to be quite comfortably aground for the night. Fortunately, it was all weed and mud and we were able to shove her off in the morning.
At 60 feet high, Smith's Falls dam was the tallest in North America when it was built. It is a keystone arch dam, constructed of interlocking tapered vertical stones, one of the first of its type in the world. It measures an impressive 350 feet across the top. All of the stones for the dam, as for as all of the locks and dams on the Rideau, came from a nearby quarry. In the case of Smith's Falls, the quarry was about 6 miles from the site of the dam. Each of the massive stones had to be manually carted from the quarry to the site before being carved and fitted into position.
Smith's Falls waterfall.
Carrie, the guide at the Smith's falls lock keepers cottage. The cottage was one of the defensible lockkeepers cottages that were built alongside the dam. The tiny long narrow window behind Carrie was one of the ones around the cottage that allowed the occupant to take cover within the cottage while being able to defend it. There were larger windows, but they were fitted with strong covers that be put in place in the event of an attack.
The Kawartha Voyager is an interesting cruise ship that runs on the Rideau and Trent-Severn canals. The ship was built specifically to fit in the locks and under the bridges of the canal. There is a deck cover on the top deck that is designed to fold back to provide a lower profile when going under the bridges. It's partially folded back in the first picture. The bridge deck also lowers hydraulically into the second floor to completely lower the profile of the ship. In addition, the bow section folds up to shorten the overall length of the ship so that it can fit into the locks.
Canoe going past on Big Rideau Lake. Lots of big granite rock islands dot the lake.
This was a miniature waterwheel we saw built in the back yard of a house along the Rideau river.
When we arrived at the Kingston Mills locks, we had a short wait while they repaired one of the cables used to tie to when you take your boat into the lock. The drained the lock and sent a workman down into it to fix the cable.
While we were waiting, we wandered around the lock station at Kingston Mills. The lock station includes this defensible blockhouse near the upper lock. You can see the same narrow 'gun' windows as shown in the picture with Carrie above. This building also had many small gun slots built into the downstairs stone portion.
I found a picture showing the various designs of the locks that have been used on the Rideau since it was constructed. Two of the lock stations still use the original endless chain system shown in the first picture below. The chain ran down the wall and across the floor of the lock and attached to the lock gate under the water. Unfortunately, debris in the water often caused the chains to jam. The two stations with locks that still use this system are located at the opposite ends of the canal - at Ottawa locks and at Kingston Mills.
The swing bar system, shown in the second picture below, was designed to overcome the problem of the chains jamming underwater. The upper beam of the gate was extended over the wall of the lock. Instead of being attached to the corner of the gate under water, the chain was attached to the end of this beam and runs through a series of pulleys at the top of the lock wall.
Late in the nineteenth century, a new system was developed that did not require a large timber bar for the top of the lock gate. This system uses a push bar that runs through the base of the 'crab' winch and is attached to the far corner of the gate. A chain is attached to either end of the push bar which is used to open or close the gate. The majority of lock gates are operated using this system.
In an attempt to modernize the canal, the Canadian Department of Transportation rebuilt the Newboro lock in 1966 and redesigned the lock to use a hydraulic gate. Instead of cranking a 'crab' winch to open and close the gate, the lock attendants only need to push a button. Seems a bit like cheating to me. Only three locks have been fitted with this new hydraulic control system, Newboro, Smiths Falls and Black Rapids.
We saw this beautiful ship entering the Kingston marina as we were arriving.
Kingston Town Hall.
We did a tour of the Alexander Henry at the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes. The Alexander Kelly was used for the maintenance of navigation aids as well as an ice-breaker and a tow boat for getting boats out of the Great Lakes before the ice sets in. It's an interesting ship which now also serves as a 'bed and breakfast' for folks visiting Kingston.
This is a map showing where we have been and where we are going. We are currently in Kingston - shown in the center of the map. We came up from New York via Lake Champlain (which runs between New York State and Vermont) and headed north into Canada. We came down the St. Lawrence seaway to Montreal, where we turn west and headed up the Ottawa River to Ottawa. We then turned south and came down the Rideau canal to Kingston.
We plan to head west through the Trent-Severn waterway - that very squiggly waterway running from Kingston through Peterborough to the Georgian Bay on the far left of the map.
Updated July 26, 2006