Channel Curtain

The channel Rideau connects the town of Ottawa on the Rivière of Outaouais to the town of Kingston on the Lake Ontario. The Rideau channel was supplemented in 1832 and continuous to be in activity today. It is the oldest system of channels always in activity in North America.

June 28th, 2007, it was devoted World heritage of UNESCO.

History

At the time where he was proposed, some time after the Guerre of 1812, there was a real threat of attacks coming from the the United States against the colonies of the British Empire, today the Canada. In order to prevent and to discourage any future invasion, the British Empire built several forts and channels to defend its territory.

The initial objective of the channel was soldier - to make safe the way of provisioning and communications between Montreal and Kingston. Towards the west starting from Montreal, the way went along the river of Outaouais until Bytown (today Ottawa), then towards south-west by the channel until Kingston (and vice versa the way towards the east of Kingston to Montreal). The intention was to circumvent the narrow passage of the Fleuve the St. Lawrence then marking the border between the High-Canada (today the province of Ontario) and the State of New York, which would have left the British boats of provisioning vulnerable to the attacks.

No other dispute between Canada and the United States took place since the channel was built. Consequently, the channel was never used for its starting objectives.

The construction of the channel was supervised by the lieutenant-colonel John By. The private contractors such John Redpath, Thomas McKay and others were responsible for the major part of construction and the majority of completed work was it by thousands of Irishman and French Canadians. The number of deaths due to work will probably never be known, though one can estimate it at thousand of these workers who died of the Malaria, other diseases and accidents caused by the explosions. The final cost of the construction of the channel was 822.000 £. What is more than what was envisaged and By was recalled to London and was questioned by a parliamentary committee before being bleached of any suspicion of bad management.

The inland waterway

The 202 kilometers of the Rideau channel include/understand sections of the Rivière Curtain and Rivière Cataraqui, like several lakes the such Rideau lakes. Some 19 kilometers of the way are made by hands of men.

Today, only the boats of pleasure use the Rideau channel. Turns of boat of the channel are offered in the town of Ottawa and the yachtmen can easily use it between Ottawa and Kingston. Several locks are still operations the hand. There is a total of 49 locks for 23 stations along the channel.

In normal weather, the channel can accept boats up to 27,4 m (90 feet) of length, 7,9 m (26 feet) of width, and 6,7 m (22 feet) height. In certain circumstances, a boat up to 33,5 m (110 feet) length by 9,1 m (30 feet) of width can be accepted.

The inland waterway include/understand the following municipalities:

Ottawa (Ontario)
Smiths Falls (Ontario)
Merrickville (Ontario)
Westport (Ontario)
Newboro (Ontario)
Kingston (Ontario)

The skating rink

In winter, the section of the Rideau channel which crosses the town of Ottawa becomes the longest skating rink of the world. The maintained section adds up 7,8 kilometers and has a surface equivalent to 90 Olympic skating rinks of hockey. The skating rink is a popular tourist attraction and a surface of recreation close of where are held the Bal festival of snow of the area of Ottawa. On the skating rink, small kiosks sell popular the tail-of-beaver (of English Beaver Tail ), a made pastry making of fried paste furnished with various ingredients as the grooves, of the Citron and the Maple syrup.

Dates of opening:

Hiver 2007: January 26th, 2007

External bonds

Seen satellite of the channel on WikiMapia
national historical Place of Canada of the Channel-Curtain, the official site of the agency Parks Canada
the skating rink of the channel Curtain
the festival Ball of snow
State of the ice, Web site of the Commission of the National Capital
the Rideau channel becomes world heritage of humanity

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