Building the Rideau Canal in the 1820's. Thomas Burrowes.
The development of canals in this decade was of great concern to towns, which stood to profit from an easier, larger flow of trade. The Rideau Canal, built to join the Ottawa River with Lake Ontario at Kingston, was one of the biggest projects. The first major public work in the interior (though paid for by the British government), its cut stone locks and well-constructed dams are still imposing today. In this picture, workmen are building the high dam at Jones Falls. Canal construction employed many immigrants, mainly Irish, from the British inflow that was now under way. Kingston benefitted from the immigrant traffic the canal brought from Montreal via the Ottawa and from the lumber trade tapped down from Ottawa Valley forests. The artist, Thomas Burrowes was an engineer on the canal and one of the frst settlers of Bytown.
