World Heritage #1221 – Rideau Canal

Last modified 03.04.2022 | Published 29.06.2016Canada, North America, World Heritage Sites

Est. reading time:

The primary purpose of the Rideau Canal was to to keep the United States out of Canada. It was kind of a success.

The UNESCO World Heritage List includes more than a thousand properties with outstanding universal value. They are all part of the world’s cultural and natural heritage.

Official facts

  • Country: Canada
  • Date of Inscription: 2007
  • Category: Cultural site

UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre’s short description of site no. 1221:

The Rideau Canal, a monumental early 19th-century construction covering 202 km of the Rideau and Cataraqui rivers from Ottawa south to Kingston Harbour on Lake Ontario, was built primarily for strategic military purposes at a time when Great Britain and the United States vied for control of the region. The site, one of the first canals to be designed specifically for steam-powered vessels, also features an ensemble of fortifications. It is the best-preserved example of a slackwater canal in North America, demonstrating the use of this European technology on a large scale. It is the only canal dating from the great North American canal-building era of the early 19th century to remain operational along its original line with most of its structures intact.

My visit

Things have changed since the days when the United States declared its independence from Great Britain and went to war. Among other things Canada is now a free country and there are almost no tensions among the three; apart from on the peaceful, competitive “battle fields”.

The Rideau Canal has been along for all this time, almost as intact as when they built it. My visit was to the locks in central Ottawa, right beneath Parliament Hill. I walked up and down a few times, enjoying the view of boats patiently waiting for their turn in the fully operational locks.

Read more about my visit.

About this series of blog entries.

Browse to the PREVIOUS or NEXT post in this series.