Rideau Canal

The sender of this postcard works right next the Rideau Canal. The canal, built for military purposes and with several fortifications along it, is a place of great fun for locals and tourists.

Rideau Canal

This postcard was sent by Jason

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. - in: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1221/