Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
1869 - Ottawa

"Ottawa — The Capital of the Dominion of Canada, is situated on the Ottawa River, 87 miles from its confluence with the St. Lawrence, and where the Gatineau and Ridcau Rivers and the Rideau Canal meet. The city, formerly called Bytown, obtained its name from its founder, Colonel By, an officer of the Royal Engineers, commissioned by the Imperial Government, in 1827, to superintend the construction of the Rideau Canal. In 1854 Bytown was created a city, and its present more appropriate name conferred. The canal divides the city into Upper and Lower Town, and enters the Ottawa through height magnificent stone locks. A massive cut-stone bridge, erected by the Royal Sappers and Miners, crosses the canal. The city is well laid out, the streets are generally wide, regular and uniform, and for the most part intersect each other at right angles. The principal quarters are supplied with gas, and active measures are now being taken for the construction of ample water works. The celebrated Chaudiere Falls, at the western extremity of the city, present a scene of grandeur unsurpassed on the continent, except by the Niagara Falls, which in many respects they rival. A suspension bridge, erected by the Provincial Government, at an original cost of $66,448, spans this foaming chasm, and unites the Provinces of Quebec and Ontario. At the northeast end of the city are two other Falls, over which the waters of the Rideau River are precipitated into the Ottawa, and although inferior to the Chaudiere, they are not wanting in interest. Altogether the scenery around the city is of unequalled beauty — wild, romantic and picturesque, — presenting a variety rarely to be met with. The commerce of Ottawa is constituted almost wholly of lumber, which passes through the city from the vast forests in the rear. More of this staple is manufactured in the district of which Ottawa is the emporium, than in any other part of Canada, and the supply furnished here is the main dependence of the spring and fall fleets which arrive in this country for return cargoes to Europe. Of sawn lumber, the mills at the Chaudiere and Ridcau Falls send out every year about one hundred millions of feet, board measure. The mills in the vicinity send out about seventy million feet of deals, and several smaller mills through the country about twenty millions more, for all of which Ottawa is the commercial centre. In addition, vast quantities of square timber are also annually exported. The future of Ottawa is not difficult to foresee. Situated in the centre of a fertile and rapidly developing country ; holding, as it were, the key of the lumber trade ; possessing unlimited water power, which men of enterprise and capital are yearly turning to account, as also every facility of communication with the principal cities of the Dominion and with the United States, it is destined to become a place of immense manufacturing operations. The natural capabilities of defence are great and important. The Parliament Buildings, recently erected, are magnificent specimens of architecture, there is no modern Gothic purer of its kind, nor less sullied with fictitious ornamentation. They consist of three buildings, forming three sides of a quadrangle, but they are not joined, the vacant spaces at the corners' being of considerable extent. The fourth side opens upon one of the principal streets of the city. The total frontage of the quadrangle, including the side buildings, is 1200 feet. The centre buildings, having a frontage of 475 feet, are occupied as the Houses of Parliament, and the side buildings as Goverment offices. The buildings stand upon a rock rising almost perpendicularly 170 feet, looking immediately down upon the river, though they are approached from the city without any ascent. The St. Lawrence and Ottawa Railway was opened in 1854, and adds materially to' the prosperity of the city. There is a daily line of steamers between Ottawa, Montreal and Kingston, and trains twice a day to Prescott, connecting with the Grand Trunk and Ogdeiisburgh Railways. Ottawa is distant from Montreal 126 miles, from Quebec 296, from Kingston 95 and from Toronto 233 miles. Population 22,000."


CE Anderson & Co, The Province of Ontario Gazetteer and Directory Montreal Supplement, Robertson & Cook, Toronto, 1869.

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