Rideau Canal

The Rideau Canal is in Canada. It is a long path of water for boats.

It goes from the city of Ottawa to a lake called Lake Ontario.

The Rideau Canal is a waterway in Canada. It runs 202 kilometers from Ottawa, the capital, south to Kingston on Lake Ontario, following the Rideau and Cataraqui rivers.

Today, Parks Canada says, pleasure boaters and paddlers fill its locks, and other visitors come to watch the historic locks at work.

The Rideau Canal covers 202 km of the Rideau and Cataraqui rivers, from Ottawa south to the harbor of Kingston on Lake Ontario. UNESCO describes it as a monumental early 19th-century construction, one of the first canals to be designed specifically for steam-powered vessels.

UNESCO calls it the best-preserved example of a slackwater canal in North America, and the only canal from the great North American canal-building era of the early 19th century that remains operational along its original line with most of its structures intact.

In Ottawa, eight locks sit one after another, like a staircase.

Most gates are still opened by people turning handles.

The Ottawa Locks are the northern entrance to the canal. Eight locks sit in a row, like a staircase, and together they lift boats 24.1 meters.

UNESCO says most of the canal's lock gates and sluice valves are still worked by hand-powered winches. The limestone for the Ottawa Locks came from the cliffs beside the works.

Parks Canada's history of the Ottawa lockstation: in September 1826 By chose a natural ravine as the canal's northern gateway. The first plan was two sets of four locks with a turning basin between them, but when the lock size was increased in June 1828 there was no room, so the eight locks were built as a continuous staircase with a total lift of 24.1 m. Loose sand and water from underground springs made the work hard.

ICOMOS notes that all the locks were hand-operated when the canal opened; by 2007, three had been converted to hydraulic or electric systems.

In this photo, the locks step down to a wide river.

Green grass and buildings line both sides.

This photo was taken in August 2004. It looks down the Ottawa Locks toward the river, with a stone lockstation building on the left and a hotel on the right.

The canal has worked as a waterway without stopping since it was built. Each year, UNESCO says, engineers inspect one third of the canal's parts.

The photograph (August 2004, by Bobak Ha'Eri) looks down the flight of Ottawa Locks between the Ottawa lockstation (left, as a later Commons caption labels it) and a hotel (right), toward the Ottawa River and a bridge in the distance. Black hand winches stand beside the gates.

UNESCO reports that the canal has fulfilled its original function as an operating waterway without interruption since its construction. Repairs to the locks, dams, canal walls and banks are carried out under Parks Canada's control, and engineers thoroughly inspect one third of the canal's assets each year. The historic site closes to the public from mid-October to mid-May (Parks Canada).