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Ottawa Ottawa, the capital of Canada is a metropolitan district having a population of 1,168,788 (2007). The city itself was credited with a population of 848,720 dwelling in an area of 6,150 acres (9.61 sq. mile), having a density of 252 per acre or 16,124 per square mile. Within the metropolitan area were included Hull, P.Q., Eastview, Gatineau, Point-à-Gatineau, and Rockcliffe Park. The crowning glory of Ottawa, its chief claim to fame and its greatest economic activity belong to its function as the national capital of half a continent, embracing a territory of nearly four million square miles. But, had the capital been located elsewhere, Ottawa would, nevertheless, have been a city, smaller it is true, but still interesting. History Situated on the Ottawa River where it is entered by two large tributaries, the Gatineau and the Rideau, Ottawa was the natural meeting place and trading centre of the Indians. The name itself is derived from the Algonquin word for 'trade'. Samuel de Champlain, Nicholas de Vigneau and Etienne de Brule seem to have been the first white men to visit the spot, in 1613. Champlain himself named the Rideau (Curtain) Falls and he translated the name Asticou (Kettle) to Chaudière -- names which they still retain. No French settlements ensued, but the Ottawa continued for a century and a half to be the route of the voyageurs. The father of Ottawa was Philemon Wright, who came to the Ottawa Valley in 1799 and, in the following March, brought a colony of 25 men and their families to the site of Hull on the north side of the river. Wright pioneered the timber trade, taking the first raft from Ottawa to Quebec in 1807. The first settler south of the river was Ira Honeywell who settled in Nepean township in 1808. In 1809, Bradish Billings appeared on the Rideau to cut timber. In 1812 he built a house about five miles from the mouth of the river and his descendants still live at Billings Bridge. In 1819 Nicholas Sparks located south of Sparks Street, his farm later becoming the most valuable real estate in the new city. The town, however, did not materialize until Col. John By began to build the Rideau Canal in 1827, when the settlement which arose became known as the village of Bytown. Twenty years later, it became a town and, in 1854, it was incorporated as the city of Ottawa. In the meantime it had become the foremost centre of the lumbering industry of Canada. In 1858, Queen Victoria chose Ottawa as the capital of the province and, at Confederation in 1867, it became the capital of the Dominion of Canada. The Site Much depends upon the physical features of a city site. Ottawa is a focal point for a series of faults or huge cracks in the earth's crust which mark the St. Lawrence lowland. Upthrust blocks of resistant limestone are the cause of the waterfalls and of Parliament Hill, the miniature Quebec which overlooks the river. Interestingly enough, it was long known as Barrack Hill and fortifications were planned. Instead of a fortress, however, it now carries the chief administrative buildings of a nation. Apart from this hill, the site of Ottawa is relatively flat, the river and the canal offering the only resistance to the spread of the city. The Urban Landscape As a city, Ottawa is beginning to take on the dignity which befits a capital. Confederation Square with its War Memorial, the great viaducts over the canal, the towering Chateau Laurier and the huge bulk of the Union Station, all combine with the Parliament Buildings in the background to form as impressive a city centre as there is on this continent. Westward along Wellington Street stand the Confederation Building, the Supreme Court and the Bank of Canada. Other structures are planned for sites which, during World War II, were occupied by temporary office buildings. Not all the government buildings are on Parliament Hill. Off to the south stand the Victoria National Museum and National Gallery. North, along the Ottawa River are the Royal Canadian Mint and National Research Council, while still farther north, beyond the Rideau River is Rideau Hall, the home of the Governor General. Southwest within the city limits, are the Dominion Observatory and the Central Experimental Farm. The latter occupies an area of a thousand acres devoted to agricultural research for the benefit of the whole country. Ottawa has many fine churches including the Anglican Christ Church Cathedral and the Roman Catholic Basilica Notre Dame. Ottawa is a city of bridges, four great structures carry road and rail traffic between Ottawa and Hullf, a dozen bridges cross the Rideau River and six span the canal. Ottawa also has its industries. The Chaudière Falls have been harnessed to provide power for mills turning out lumber, paper, matches and many other articles. Much of the industrial development is on "the flats" near the falls, but many factories are located along the railways which, as in many other cities, cut the urban landscape in an unplanned and rather awkward fashion. Ottawa has an excellent shopping district, extending along Sparks St., and Bank St. at right angles to it, and including, also, a number of nearby streets while just to the northeast of the city centre is found the Ottawa Produce Market. Ottawa has numerous up-to-date school buildings in various parts of the city. There are many fine residential areas including Rockcliffe Park in the vicinity of Rideau Hall and Sandy Hill, Ottawa's oldest residential district where the Prime Minister and many foreign ambassadors live. There are also many less pretentious areas of well built houses; the few poorer areas left as a legacy from old Bytown are fast disappearing. Ottawa is noted for its park system including Rockcliffe Park, a scenic, natural area on the bank of the Ottawa, Landsdowne Park, where the Ottawa Exhibition is held, and the famous driveways that run for miles along the Rideau Canal. Over it all stand the Houses of Parliament, impressive symbol, of Canadian democracy. The three original buildings were built between 1858 and 1865, of native Nepean sandstone and in Gothic style. In 1916 the central building burned and was rebuilt on a larger scale and with a higher tower. Known as the Peace Tower, it houses a carillon of 53 bells while below in the Memorial Chamber is the Altar of Remembrance preserving the book containing the names of Canadians who gave their lives in the first Great War. Home