The construction of the Rideau Canal was overseen by Colonel John By, and was intended to provide a secure route between Montreal and Kingston on Lake Ontario, by-passing the stretch of the St. Lawrence River bordering New York State (the U.S Invasion of Canada (1775) in the War of 1812 being a recent memory). Construction began in 1826 at the northern end (Ottawa River), where Colonel By set up a military barracks on Barrack Hill, what later became Parliament Hill, and laid out a townsite soon known as Bytown. The west side of the canal, with its higher elevation, became known as "Uppertown", while the east side of the canal (wedged between the canal and Rideau River) was known as the "Lowertown". Bytown's population grew to 1,000 permanent residents as the completion of the Rideau Canal came to an end in November 1831. This led to Lowertown being a crowded and boisterous shanty town, receiving the worst of disease epidemics, such as the Cholera outbreak in 1832, and a typhus outbreak in 1847.
The Shiners' War was a conflict between Irish Catholic and French immigrants in Bytown from 1835 to 1845. The war started when Peter Aylen, a major Irish timber operator, organized a group of Irishmen to attack other timber operations. This group was known as the "Shiners. They attacked French timber rafts and fought against the French on the streets of Bytown. The Stony Monday Riot took place in Bytown on Monday September 17, 1849. Lord Elgin had signed the Rebellion Losses Bill, compensating Lower Canadians for losses suffered during the Rebellions of 1837-38. The bill was unpopular with Tories because it compensated those who had participated in the rebellion unless they had been convicted of treason.
Prominent figures of Bytown include; Ruggles Wright, Nicholas Sparks, Thomas McKay, Edward Malloch, Braddish Billings, John Rudolphus Booth, Joseph Merrill Currier and Abraham Dow. Bytown was renamed Ottawa in 1855, when it was incorporated as a city. The August Ontario Civic Holiday, which is called Simcoe Day in Toronto and Peter Robinson Day in Peterborough, is named Colonel By Day in Ottawa.
Serving as Canada's capital, Ottawa is home to the Parliament of Canada, the House of Commons, the Senate, the Privy Council, the Supreme Court, the Federal Court and the Bank of Canada. Ottawa is also the permanent residents of both the Canadian monarch and the Governor General of Canada as well as the official residence of the Prime Minister of Canada.
On December 31, 1857, Queen Victoria was asked to choose a common capital for the Province of Canada (modern day Ontario and Quebec) and chose Ottawa. While Ottawa is now a metropolis and Canada's fourth largest city, at the time it was a fast growing, sometimes unruly logging town in the hinterland with a population now reaching 10,000 individuals. Ottawa was far away from the colony's main cities, Quebec City and Montreal in Canada East, and Kingston and Toronto in Canada West.
The Queen's advisers suggested she pick Ottawa for several important reasons: Ottawa's position in the back country made it more defensible, while still allowing easy transportation over the Ottawa River to Canada East, and over the Rideau Canal to Canada West. Two other considerations were that Ottawa was at a point nearly exactly midway between Toronto and Quebec City (500 kilometres , and that the small size of the town made it less likely that politically motivated mobs could go on a rampage and destroy government buildings, as had happened in the previous Canadian capitals. The Ottawa River and the Rideau Canal network meant that Ottawa could be supplied by water from Kingston and Montreal without going along the potentially treacherous US-Canada border. At the time of the decision, the Ottawa-to-Prescott, Ontario railway had already been in operation for two years. Thus, another factor in the advisement was the knowledge that Ottawa would soon have railway connections to Toronto and Montreal via Brockville (by 1859 it turned out), and thus access to other connecting rail lines in Canada and the United States in the very near future. Thus, Ottawa would still be relatively isolated and thus defensible, but yet would soon be more easily accessible by water and rail, which would be essential for a permanent capital. In 1866, the legislature was finally moved to Ottawa, after a few years of alternating between Toronto and Quebec City.
The Hull-Ottawa fire of 1900 destroyed two thirds of Hull, including 40 per cent of its residential buildings and most of its largest employers along the waterfront. The fire also spread across the wooden Chaudière Bridge and destroyed about one fifth of Ottawa from the Lebreton Flats south to Booth Street and down to Dow's Lake.
The Centre Block of the Parliament buildings were destroyed by fire on February 3, 1916. The House of Commons and Senate were temporarily relocated to the recently constructed Victoria Memorial Museum, currently the Canadian Museum of Nature, located about 1 km (1 mi) south of Parliament Hill on McLeod Street at Metcalfe Street. A new Centre Block was completed in 1922, the centrepiece of which is a dominant Gothic revival styled structure known as the Peace Tower located on Wellington Street.
A series of explosions in the sewers caused property damage throughout the city on May 29, 1929 and again on January 28, 1931. The cause of the explosions was never definitively determined.
On September 5, 1945, only days after the end of World War II, Ottawa was the site of the event that many people consider to be the official start of the Cold War. A Soviet cipher clerk, Igor Gouzenko, defected from the Soviet embassy with over 100 secret documents. The documents provided evidence of a massive Soviet spy network operating in western countries and indirectly, led to the discovery that the Soviets were working on an atomic bomb to match that developed during the Manhattan Project.
The Turkish embassy attack was an attack on the Turkish embassy in Ottawa, on March 12, 1985. The event changed the Canadian government's attitude toward militants and set in motion a chain of events that would eventually lead to the creation of Joint Task Force Two.
French urban planner Jacques Greber was hired in the 1940s to work on a master plan for the National Capital Region (the Greber Plan). Jacques Greber was the creator of the National Capital Greenbelt, the Parkway System, as well as many other projects throughout the NCR. He was also responsible for taking out Ottawa's vast streetcar system and closing down historic Downtown Union Station (now Government Conference Centre) in favour of a suburban station several kilometres to the east.
During the baby boom of the 1950s, Ottawa saw the modernization of its transportation system including the completion of the Bytown bridges. In the 1960s through 1980s, the National Capital Region experienced a building boom, proportionally reflecting that of Montreal and Toronto. This was followed by large growth in the high-tech industry during the 1990s and 2000s, resulting in Ottawa becoming known as "Silicon Valley North".
In 2001, the old city of Ottawa was amalgamated with the suburbs of Cumberland, Gloucester, Kanata, Nepean, Orleans, Rockcliffe Park, and Vanier, and the rural townships of Goulbourn, Osgoode, Rideau, and West Carleton along with the systems and infrastructure of the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton, to become one municipality. Before 1969 and the creation of Ottawa-Carleton, the city of Ottawa was part of Carleton County. In 2006, the National Capital Commission completed work on the long-discussed Confederation Boulevard, a ceremonial route linking key attractions in National Capital Region, on both sides of the Ottawa River, in Ottawa as well as Gatineau, Quebec.
Ottawa is situated on the south bank of the Ottawa River, and contains the mouths of the Rideau River and Rideau Canal. The oldest part of the city (including what remains of Bytown) is known as Lower Town, and occupies an area between the canal and the rivers. Across the canal to the west lies Centretown and Downtown Ottawa, which is the city's financial and commercial hub. As of June 29, 2007, the Rideau Canal, which stretches 202 km (126 mi) to Kingston, Fort Henry and four Martello towers in the Kingston area was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Located on a major, yet mostly dormant fault line, Ottawa is occasionally struck by earthquakes. Examples include a magnitude 5.2 earthquake on January 1, 2000, a magnitude 4.5 earthquake on February 24, 2006, a magnitude 5.0 earthquake on June 23, 2010.
Across the Ottawa River, which forms the border between Ontario and Quebec, lies the city of Gatineau, itself the result of amalgamation of the former Quebec cities of Hull and Aylmer together with Gatineau. Although formally and administratively separate cities in two separate provinces, Ottawa and Gatineau (along with a number of nearby municipalities) collectively constitute the National Capital Region, with a combined population exceeding one million residents, which is considered a single metropolitan area. One federal crown corporation (the National Capital Commission, or NCC) has significant land holdings in both cities, including sites of historical and touristic importance. The NCC, through its responsibility for planning and development of these lands, is an important contributor to both cities. Around the main urban area is an extensive greenbelt, administered by the National Capital Commission for conservation and leisure, and comprising mostly forest, farmland and marshland.
Influenced by government structures, much of the city's architecture tends to be formalistic and functional. However, the city is also marked by Romantic and Picturesque styles of architecture such as the Parliament Building's gothic revival architecture. Ottawa's domestic architecture is dominated by single family homes. There are also smaller numbers of semi-detached, rowhouses, and apartment buildings. Most domestic buildings are clad in brick, with small numbers covered in wood or stone. The Ottawa skyline has remained conservative in skyscraper height throughout the years due to a skyscraper height restriction. The restrictions were originally implemented to keep Parliament Hill and the Peace Tower at 92.2 metres (302 ft) visible from most parts of the City. Today, several buildings are slightly taller than the Peace Tower, with the tallest located on Albert Street being the 29-storey Place de Ville (Tower C) at 112 metres (367 ft). Federal buildings in the National Capital Region are managed by Public Works Canada, while most of the federal land in the region is managed by the National Capital Commission; its control of much undeveloped land gives the NCC a great deal of influence over the city's development.
Ottawa is bounded on the east by the United Counties of Prescott and Russell; by Renfrew County and Lanark County in the west; on the south by the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville and the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry; and on the north by the Regional County Municipality of Les Collines-de-l'Outaouais and the City of Gatineau. Modern Ottawa is made up of eleven historic townships, ten of which are from Carleton County and one from Russell.
The city has a main urban area but there are many other urban, suburban and rural areas within the modern city's limits. The main suburban area extends a considerable distance to the east, west and south of the centre, and includes the former cities of Gloucester, Nepean and Vanier, the former villages of Rockcliffe Park and the community of Blackburn Hamlet, the community of Orléans. The Kanata suburban area consists of Kanata and the former village of Stittsville. Nepean is another major suburb which also includes Barrhaven and the former village of Manotick. There are also the communities of Riverside South on the other side of the Rideau River, Morgan's Grant and Greely, southeast of Riverside South.
There are a number of rural communities (villages and hamlets) that lie beyond the greenbelt but are administratively part of the Ottawa municipality. Some of these communities are Burritts Rapids; Ashton; Fallowfield; Kars; Fitzroy Harbour; Munster; Carp; North Gower; Metcalfe; Constance Bay and Osgoode and Richmond. There are also a number of towns in the national capital region but outside the city of Ottawa, one of these urban communities is Almonte, Ontario.
The capital city of Canada is also served by a network of freeways, the main one being provincial Highway 417 (called The Queensway), Ottawa-Carleton Regional Road 174 (formerly Provincial Highway 17), and Highway 416 (Veterans' Memorial Highway), connecting Ottawa to the rest of the 400-Series Highway network in Ontario. Highway 417 is also the Ottawa portion of the Trans-Canada Highway. The city also has several scenic parkways (promenades), such as Colonel By Drive, Queen Elizabeth Driveway, the Ottawa River Parkway, Rockcliffe Parkway and the Aviation Parkway and has a freeway connection to Autoroute 5 and Autoroute 50, in Gatineau.
Ottawa is served by a number of airlines that fly into the Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport, as well as two main regional airports Gatineau-Ottawa Executive Airport, and Ottawa/Carp Airport. The city is also served by inter-city passenger rail service at the Ottawa Train Station by Via Rail, and inter-city bus service operating out of the Ottawa Bus Central Station.
In 1866, Ottawa first public transportation system began with the operation of a horsecar system. The horse-drawn streetcars travelled back and fourth from New Edinburgh to the Chaudière Bridge. The horsecar would remain a staple means of public transportation until Thomas Ahearn founded the "Ottawa Electric Railway Company" in 1880. This private enterprise eventually provided heated streetcar service covering the downtown core.
The current public transit system is operated by OC Transpo, a department of the city. An integrated hub-and-spoke system of services is available consisting of: (1) regular buses travelling on fixed routes in mixed traffic, typical of most urban transit systems; (2) a bus rapid transit (BRT) system — a high frequency bus service operating on the transitway — a network of mostly grade-separated dedicated bus lanes within their own right-of-way and having full stations with Park & Ride facilities further supported by on-road reserved bus lanes and priority traffic signal controls; (3) a light rail transit (LRT) system known as the O-Train operating on one north-south route; and (4) a door-to-door bus service for the disabled known as ParaTranspo. Both OC Transpo and the Quebec-based Société de transport de l'Outaouais (STO) operate bus services between Ottawa and Gatineau.
There is a large network of paved multi-use trails that wind their way through much of the city, including along the Ottawa River, Rideau River, and Rideau Canal. These pathways are used for transportation, tourism, and recreation. Because most streets either have wide curb lanes or bicycle lanes, cycling is a popular mode of transportation in the region throughout the year. There are over 220 kilometeres of paths located throughout the Ottawa-Gatineau region. There are a few downtown streets that are restricted to only bicycle or pedestrians, such as Sparks Street that was turned into a pedestrian mall in 1966. On Sundays and selected holidays additional avenues and streets are reserved for pedestrian and bicycle uses only.
Ottawa sits at the confluence of three major rivers: the Ottawa River, the Gatineau River and the Rideau River. The Ottawa and Gatineau rivers were historically important in the logging and lumber industries and the Rideau as part of the Rideau Canal system for military, commercial and, susequently, recreational purposes. The Rideau Canal, connecting the Ottawa River and the Saint Lawrence River at Kingston, Ontario, by-passes unnavigable sections of the Rideau River as it winds its way through the city. Rideau is a French word that means 'Curtain' in English, and the falls resemble a curtain, hence the name. During part of the winter season the frozen waters of the canal form the world's largest skating rink thereby providing both a recreational venue and a 7.8 kilometres (4.8 miles) transportation path to downtown for ice skaters (from Carleton University and Dow's Lake to the Rideau Centre and National Arts Centre).
The Ottawa language (dialect of the Ojibwe language) was spoken for centuries by the Odawa people and subsequently by the French coureurs des bois and voyageurs of the Ottawa valley during the 1600s and 1700s. Starting in the mid 1800s, Irish settlers of the Ottawa valley develop a distinct dialect referred to as "Ottawa Valley Twang". Traces of "Valley Twang" although rare, can still be heard in the valley's more isolated areas.
Bilingualism in Ottawa became official policy in 2002, making all municipal services available in both of Canada's official languages (Canadian English and Canadian French). Nearly 300,000 people, or 37% of Ottawa's population, can speak both languages, As such it is the largest city in Canada with both English and French as co-official languages. Those who identified their mother tongue as English constitute 62.6%, French 14.9%, and both 0.9%. An additional 21.6% list languages other than English and French as their mother tongue. These include Italian, Chinese, Somali, Spanish, German, Persian, Urdu, Lebanese along with other dialects of the Arabic language. When questioned on their knowledge of Canada's official languages, 59.9% of the population reported speaking only English; 37.2% reported speaking both English and French; 1.6% spoke only French; and 1.3% spoke neither official language.
Ottawa is a single-tier municipality, meaning it is in itself a census division and has no county or regional municipality government above it. As a single tier municipality, Ottawa has responsibility for all municipal services, including fire, ambulatory, police, parks, roads, sidewalks, public transit, drinking water, stormwater, sanitary sewage and solid waste. Ottawa is governed by the 24-member Ottawa City Council consisting of 23 councillors each representing one ward and the mayor, currently Jim Watson, elected in a citywide vote.
Along with being the capital of Canada, Ottawa is politically diverse in local politics. Most of the city has traditionally supported the Liberal Party. Perhaps the safest areas for the Liberals are the ones dominated by Francophones, especially in Vanier and central Gloucester. Central Ottawa is usually more left-leaning, and the New Democratic Party can win ridings there as government unions and activist groups are fairly strong. Some of Ottawa's suburbs are swing areas, notably central Nepean and, despite its Francophone population, Orléans. The southern and western parts of the old city of Ottawa are generally moderate and swing to the Conservative Party. The farther one goes outside the city centre like to Kanata and Barrhaven and rural areas, the voters tend to be increasingly conservative, both fiscally and socially. This is especially true in the former Townships of West Carleton, Goulbourn, Rideau and Osgoode, which are more in line with the conservative areas in the surrounding counties. However not all rural areas support the Conservative Party. Rural parts of the former township of Cumberland, with a large number of Francophones, traditionally support the Liberal Party, though their support has recently weakened.
Ottawa is known as one of the most educated cities in Canada, with over half the population having graduated from College and/or university. Ottawa has the highest per capita concentration of engineers, scientists, and residents with PhDs in Canada. Ottawa's primary employers are the Public Service of Canada and the high-tech industry. The average single income in 2005 was 43,613, while the average private household income was 85,136.
The city has two main public universities Carleton University and University of Ottawa, and two main public colleges Algonquin College and La Cité collégiale. It also has two Christian universities Dominican University College and Saint Paul University. There is also the University of Quebec en Outaouais, Cégep de l'Outaouais, and Heritage College in the neighbouring City of Gatineau.
There are four main public school boards in Ottawa. English, English-Catholic, French, and French-Catholic. The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) is the largest board with 147 schools, followed by the Ottawa Catholic School Board with 85 schools. The two French language boards are the Conseil des écoles catholiques du Centre-Est with 49 schools, and the Conseil des écoles publiques de l'Est de l'Ontario with 37 schools. The Ottawa Public Library was created in 1906 as part of the famed Carnegie library system. The library system had 2.3 million items as of 2008.
Ottawa's hosts a variety of annual seasonal activities — such as Winterlude, the largest festival in Canada, and Canada Day celebrations on Parliament Hill and surrounding downtown area, as well as Bluesfest, Canadian Tulip Festival, Ottawa International Jazz Festival, Fringe Festival, Folk Music Festival, and SuperEX that have grown to become some of the largest festivals of their kind in the world. In 2010, Ottawa's Festival industry received the IFEA "World Festival and Event City Award" for the category of North American cities with a population between 500,000 and 1,000,000.
As Canada's capital, Ottawa has played host to a number of significant cultural events in Canadian history, including the first visit of the reigning Canadian sovereign—King George VI, with his consort, Queen Elizabeth—to his parliament, on 19 May 1939. VE Day was marked with a large celebration on 8 May 1945, the first raising of the country's new national flag took place on 15 February 1965, and the centennial of Confederation was celebrated on 1 July 1967. Elizabeth II was in Ottawa on 17 April 1982, to issue a royal proclamation of the enactment of the Constitution Act. In 1983, Prince Charles and Diana Princess of Wales came to Ottawa for a state dinner hosted by then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. In 2011, Ottawa was selected as the first city to receive Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge during their Royal tour of Canada.
Amongst the city's national museums and galleries is the National Gallery of Canada designed by famous architect Moshe Safdie, it is a permanent home to the Maman statue. The Canadian War Museum houses over 3.75 million artifacts and was moved to an expanded facility in 2005. The Canadian Museum of Nature was built in 1905, and over went a major renovation from 2004–2010. Across the river in Gatineau is the most visited museum in Canada, the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Designed by Canadian aboriginal architect Douglas Cardinal, the complex built at a cost of 340 million USD also houses the Canadian Children's Museum, the Canadian Postal Museum and 3D IMAXtheatre. The city is also home to the Canada Agriculture Museum, the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, the Canada Science and Technology Museum, Billings Estate Museum, Bytown Museum, Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Canadian Ski Museum, Currency Museum, and the Portrait Gallery of Canada. The Ottawa Little Theatre, originally called the Ottawa Drama League at its inception in 1913, is the longest-running community theatre company in Ottawa. Since 1969, Ottawa has been the home of the National Arts Centre, a major performing arts venue that houses four stages and is home to the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra, and Opera Lyra Ottawa.
The Rideau Canal is the oldest continuously operated canal system in North America, and in 2007, it was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In addition, there are 24 National Historic Sites of Canada in Ottawa and five others within the National Capital Region: the Former Almonte Post Office and Rosamond Woollen Mill in Almonte, the Gillies Grove and House in Arnprior, the Manoir Papineau in Montebello and the Symmes Hotel in the Aylmer sector of Gatineau.
Many other properties of cultural value have been designated as having "heritage elements" by the City of Ottawa under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act.
Sport in Ottawa has a history dating back to the 19th century. Ottawa is currently home to one professional sports team, the Ottawa Senators of the National Hockey League. A second pro team, a new Canadian Football League franchise, is scheduled to debut in 2013. Several non-professional teams also play in Ottawa, including the Ottawa 67's junior hockey team. Collegiate teams in various sports compete in Canadian Interuniversity Sport. The Carleton Ravens are nationally ranked in basketball, and the Ottawa Gee-Gees are nationally-ranked in football and basketball. Algonquin College has also won numerous national championships. The city is home to an assortment of amateur organized team sports such as soccer, basketball, baseball, curling and horse racing. Casual recreational activities, such as skating, cycling, hiking, sailing, golfing, skiing and fishing/ice fishing are also popular.
There are three main daily local newspapers printed in Ottawa: two English newspapers, the Ottawa Citizen and the Ottawa Sun, with 900,197 and 274,628 weekly circulation respectively, and one French newspaper, Le Droit. A wide range of Canadian broadcast networks and systems are available in both English and French. Some of the local television stations include CJOH, A network, CHOT and TVA. There are a wide range of radio stations that broadcast in both English and French. Some of this station include 580 News, Hot 89.9, Bob FM, CHEZ-FM, Jack FM, DAWG FM and NRJ.