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Dow's Lake | |
---|---|
Location | Ottawa |
Coordinates | 45°23′40″N75°42′06″W / 45.394412°N 75.701551°W |
Lake type | Artificial lake |
Primary inflows | Rideau Canal |
Primary outflows | Rideau Canal |
Basin countries | Canada |
Dow's Lake in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada is a small man-made lake on the Rideau Canal, situated two kilometres north of Hog's Back Falls in the middle of Ottawa. It is at the southern end of Preston Street, just south of Carling Avenue, and just to the west of Bronson Avenue. At the southern end of the lake is Carleton University, and to its west is the Dominion Arboretum, at the edge of the Central Experimental Farm.
The lake is named after Abram Dow, an American-born settler who came to Ontario in the early 19th century and who owned land in this area in 1816. Before construction of the canal, this area was known as Dow's Great Swamp. [1] The lake was created when a dam was constructed along the north shore (Queen Elizabeth Driveway is now atop the dam) to allow flooding for the canal. Originally, the Rideau Canal was to run north from Dow's Lake, but land speculation and Colonel John By's reluctance to reward such speculation resulted in the current location of the canal.
Current parkland to the north and east consisted of rail yards until the 1940s, and the area was mostly industrial.
Situated next to the pavilion on the western shore is Canadian Forces Reserve Barrack Dow's Lake. This installation, opened in 1943, is home to HMCS Carleton, a unit of the Canadian Naval Reserve.
A rail tunnel, which was formerly owned and operated by Canadian Pacific, passes under the lake. This tunnel replaced a rail line that once crossed the lake on the surface. OC Transpo introduced the O-Train (today's Trillium Line) in 2001, a light-rail transit system, which remains the primary user of the tunnel.
Unveiled by Princess Margriet of the Netherlands, The Man with Two Hats is a 4.6-metre sculpture by Henk Visch . It commemorates the role played by the Canadian Armed Forces in the liberation of the Netherlands, and a reproduced cast of the sculpture that exists at the National Canadian Liberation Monument in Apeldoorn, Netherlands. [2] Facing the lake, it symbolizes the historical links between Canada and the Netherlands, as well as Princess Margriet's birth at the Ottawa Civic Hospital during the Second World War. [3]
In May, the surrounding park, Commissioners Park, displays tulips planted by the National Capital Commission (NCC) for the annual Canadian Tulip Festival. More than 50 varieties and approximately 300,000 tulips bloom each May along the Rideau Canal. Each year, the Dutch royal family sends 10,000 tulips to Ottawa, as thanks for the city's support during the Second World War. [4]
During the winter, Dow's Lake freezes and becomes part of the world's longest skating rink and one of the primary sites of the Winterlude festival in February, with events such as "bed races" and "waiter races" on the ice.
There are two scenic drives along the canal, which also pass on two sides of the lake. The Queen Elizabeth Driveway, named after the late Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (who traveled along it during the 1939 royal visit) runs along the north and west sides of the lake. The Colonel By Drive, named after the founder of the city, Lieutenant-Colonel John By, runs along the south side of the lake.
At the northern end of the lake, a pavilion housing three restaurants overlooks the water. They are Umbrella Bar, Lago and Mexi's. Other services at the pavilion include rentals of canoes, kayaks and paddle boats, boat mooring, and an indoor changing area for skating. It is open year-round.
The Rideau Canal is a 202-kilometre long canal that links the Ottawa River at Ottawa with the Cataraqui River and Lake Ontario at Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Its 46 locks raise boats from the Ottawa River 83 metres upstream along the Rideau River to the Rideau Lakes, and from there drop 50 metres downstream along the Cataraqui River to Kingston.
The Glebe is a neighbourhood in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is located just south of Downtown Ottawa in the Capital Ward. As of 2016, the neighbourhood had a population of 13,055.
Bank Street is the major commercial north–south street in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It runs south from Wellington Street in downtown Ottawa, south through the neighbourhoods of Centretown, The Glebe, Old Ottawa South, Alta Vista, Hunt Club, and then through the villages of Blossom Park, Leitrim, South Gloucester, Greely, Metcalfe, Spring Hill, and Vernon before ending at the city limit at Belmeade Road, becoming Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry county highway 31.
Lieutenant-Colonel John By was an English military engineer. He is best known for having supervised the construction of the Rideau Canal and for having founded Bytown in the process. It developed and was designated as the Canadian capital, Ottawa.
Colonel By Drive is an 8.1 km (5.0 mi) long scenic parkway in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Somerset Street is a street in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is divided into Somerset Street East and Somerset Street West by the Rideau Canal.
Dow's Lake is an O-Train station on the Trillium Line, one block west of the intersection of Carling Avenue and Preston Street in Ottawa, Ontario. It is named the nearby Dow's Lake, itself also the western terminus of the Rideau Canal skating rink during winters, as well as a key site during the Canadian Tulip Festival in May. The station is also near government offices at the area of Carling Avenue and Booth Street. South of Carling, the train enters a tunnel to pass under the Rideau Canal. The station was originally named for nearby Carling Avenue and Sir John Carling.
Carleton is an O-Train light rail station located in the center of the Carleton University campus in Ottawa, Ontario. The station is served by Line 2, which began service in 2001, and is between Dow's Lake station to the north and Mooney's Bay station to the south. The line and station are currently under construction, and are expected to reopen in the summer of 2024.
The Canadian Tulip Festival is a tulip festival held annually each May in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The festival claims to be the world's largest tulip festival, displaying over one million tulips, with attendance of over 650,000 visitors annually. Large displays of tulips are planted throughout the city, the largest of which are often in Commissioners Park on the shores of Dow's Lake, and along the Rideau Canal with 300,000 tulips planted there alone.
Queen Elizabeth Driveway is a scenic parkway in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Commissioners Park is a park in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It lies within the westernmost section of The Glebe, bounded by Dow's Lake, Preston Street, Carling Avenue and Dow's Lake Road.
King's Highway 31, commonly referred to as Highway 31 and historically known as the Metcalfe Road, was a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. The 76.93-kilometre (47.80 mi) route connected Highway 2 in Morrisburg with the Chaudière Bridge at the Ontario–Quebec boundary in downtown Ottawa.
Prince of Wales Drive is a road serving Ottawa, Ontario. The northern section is a low-speed street running along the west bank of the Rideau River, while southern portions of the road were formerly Highway 16.
The architecture of Ottawa is most marked by the city's role as the national capital of Canada. This gives the city a number of monumental structures designed to represent the federal government and the nation. It also means that as a city dominated by government bureaucrats, much of its 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.
The Plaza Bridge in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, is an automotive and pedestrian bridge that crosses the Rideau Canal just south of the Ottawa locks. It joins Wellington Street and Elgin Street in the Downtown core to the west with Rideau Street to the east. The Chateau Laurier abuts the bridge at the east end, while Parliament Hill is just beyond the west end. It is the northernmost bridge over the canal, just north of the Mackenzie King Bridge.
This is a timeline of the history of Ottawa.
The Golden Triangle is a sub-neighbourhood of Centretown in Somerset Ward in central Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It borders Elgin Street, at its west, and the Rideau Canal, at its east. The Ottawa City Hall is to its north and the Elgin Street Police Station to its south. According to the 2016 Canada Census, the total population for this area was 5,778.
The Capital Pathway, also known informally as the Bike Path, is a 220-kilometre (140 mi) recreational pathway interlinking many parks, waterways and sites in Ottawa, Ontario and Gatineau, Quebec. Most of the pathway is paved, and allows an almost continuous route through the National Capital Region.
The history of Ottawa, capital of Canada, was shaped by events such as the construction of the Rideau Canal, the lumber industry, the choice of Ottawa as the location of Canada's capital, as well as American and European influences and interactions. By 1914, Ottawa's population had surpassed 100,000 and today it is the capital of a G7 country whose metropolitan population exceeds one million.