City Daily Photo Theme Day: Transportation

The first day of each month is a theme day for members of City Daily Photo, and for October that theme is Transportation. Check out how others are interpreting the theme right here.

My focus for this one is the Rideau Canal, a water route that passes between Ottawa and Kingston, built nearly two centuries ago and still used today as a recreational waterway. I was out at the Bank Street Bridge late one night, where the bridge crosses from the Glebe on the north side into Old Ottawa South on the south side. The Canal itself was still this time of night, reflecting the lit arches of the bridge. I was standing on Queen Elizabeth Drive- one of the parkways of the city- and a bike path was close by, separated from me by a strip of grass. Transportation in more than one way: water route, bike and walking path, parkway, and major city street going over a bridge.

The Canal was built as a military and economic project, at a time of tensions with our American cousins, requiring an inland route connecting Lake Ontario to the Ottawa River. Along its course, much of it involving the Rideau River, it crosses over heights or compensates for areas where the natural water course is too shallow for boats. The rise of the railroad ended its economic importance, but the Canal became well known for recreational boating. This shot looks east, taken from the bike path. The Canal is black in the night.

Crossing over to the west side of the bridge, I took these shots.

Some days later, I was downtown, where the final stretch of the Canal is found here, amid landmarks, like the Government Conference Centre at left. Canada geese were down below.

This view looks north from the same bridge, Plaza Bridge, over the Ottawa Locks, where the Canal descends to meet the Ottawa River. Parliament Hill is on the west side, while the Chateau Laurier hotel is on the east side. It is here at these locks where the Canal makes its most dramatic descent or ascent along its entire length.

I headed beneath Plaza Bridge, the most recent of the bridges that crosses this spot, and photogenic, with this graceful curve around the staircase.

The arches continue over the Canal itself.

A boat was in one of the locks.

Canada geese, who provide their own transportation, were having lunch and resting in the grass on the slope by the Canal. They'll be making their way south soon.

Walking out onto one of the lock bridges. The Bytown Museum, at left, is where we'll go next, starting tomorrow.

A look up. The Chateau dominates this view on the left.

Where the Rideau Canal meets the Ottawa River. The last lock opens here.

And here, where the Ottawa River is wide, we get a look across to Gatineau on the far shore. The Ottawa River, itself a major route of transportation for thousands of years, has seen much. This spot is a particularly appealing location for me.