Transportation
The Rideau Canal is a 202-kilometre waterway linking Ottawa and Kingston through the Rideau and Cataraqui systems. Planned after the War of 1812 as a secure interior supply route, it followed a long-used Indigenous corridor and was built from 1826 to 1832 under Lieutenant-Colonel John By. Its distinctive slackwater design used dams to raise water levels and submerge rapids, creating a chain of rivers, lakes, locks, and engineered passages. Though never used in war, it became important to Upper Canada’s early commerce. Despite heavy construction costs and the deaths of many workers from disease, it endures as North America’s oldest continuously operated canal system and a remarkably preserved working waterway.
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Ontario · Canada
