The Rideau Falls

When we first arrived in Ottawa from the UK I used to think that the ice floes tipping over the Rideau Falls looked like giant chunks of Kendal Mint Cake. We paused a while yesterday to watch some of this years' ice reach the lip of the Falls and splash down below. A group of people were doing the same on the opposite bank and shouting "Oh!" as the larger pieces hit the Ottawa River with a splash. Perhaps the sight was new to them; it's certainly dramatic. This year is the first time that I recall the bridge across the Falls being ribboned off: no public access. If you stand there watching the full spate of water, it makes you dizzy, and if there's a wind from the northwest, the spray blows up and wets you.

Rideau Falls, 1860 (no public safety measures, in those days!)

The hydro energy used to be harnessed by a series of mills (grist mill, wool mill, saw mill), built by Thomas MacKay, who first saw its potential in the 1820s. MacKay (sometimes spelled McKay) is also famous for having built the mansions Rideau Hall, eventually the official home of the Governor General, and Earnscliffe, now the British High Commissioner's Residence, overlooking the Ottawa River upstream from the Falls.

In our day there's a small hydro-electric station with two turbines beside the Falls which has been in service since 1908 and which generates 8542 MW of power per year.