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Rideau Canal
CC BY-SA 2.5 | Author: Bobak Ha'Eri | Full Size | More Pics >

Rideau Canal

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Rank: 1001 UNESCO
Wonder Type: Cultural
Country: Canada
Best of: Canal
Description:
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. [More Details]
This article uses material from UNESCO World Heritage List article "Rideau Canal", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike 3.0 IGO License.