Hog's Back Falls

Hog's Back Falls

The Hog's Back Falls, are a series of artificially-created waterfalls on the Rideau River in Ottawa, Canada. The falls are located just north of Mooney's Bay and the point where the Rideau Canal, splits from the river.

Prior to the construction of the Rideau Canal, these were a gentle set of rapids originally known as Three Rock Rapids. The name Hog's Back came into use shortly before canal construction. Civil Engineer John MacTaggart, in 1827, described them as "“a noted ridge of rocks, called the Hog’s Back, from the circumstances of raftsmen with their wares [timber rafts] sticking on it in coming down the stream.”" These rapids were about 600 metres (2 000 feet) in length with a drop of about 1.8 metres (6 feet). They were navigable by canoe, no portage was required. As part of his concept for a slackwater navigation system, Lt. Colonel John By's design for the Rideau Canal called for a large dam to be raised in this location. It would divert water from the Rideau River into the artificially-created section of the canal leading to the Ottawa locks. It would also flood the Three Island Rapids located upstream (the head of present day Mooney's Bay marks the foot of these rapids).

The building of this dam provided one of the greatest construction challenges (it collapsed 3 times during construction) of the Rideau Canal, but when completed in 1831 it flooded the Rideau River at that point by 12.5 metres (41 feet). To accommodate the natural flow of the Rideau River and to prevent damage from spring flooding, a large waste water weir was constructed. The water from this flows though a channel that was excavated in the western bank of the Rideau River. This created the Hogs Back Falls that we see today. The head of the original rapids is now buried beneath the canal dam, but the lower section of the rapids can still be seen today.

This location marks where the route of the Rideau Canal leaves the Rideau River and enters a man made canal leading to the Ottawa locks. A series of locks lowers boats from this location to the Ottawa River.

External links

* [http://www.rideau-info.com/canal/tales/hogsback-dam.html The story of the building of the Hogs Back Dam]

Gallery


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Chaudière Falls — For the identically named falls on the Chaudière River, see Chutes de la Chaudière. Chaudière Falls in June 2006, at summer water levels The Chaudière Falls are a set of cascades and waterfall in the centre of the Ottawa Gatineau metropolitan… …   Wikipedia

  • Rideau Falls — The Rideau Falls is a waterfall located in Ottawa, Canada where the Rideau River empties into the Ottawa River. The falls are divided by Green Island, with the Old City Hall just to the south. To the west of the falls is the headquarters of the… …   Wikipedia

  • Hog Wild (1930 film) — Infobox Film name = Hog Wild caption = director = James Parrott producer = Hal Roach writer = H. M. Walker, Stan Laurel starring = Stan Laurel Oliver Hardy music = cinematography = George Stevens editing = Richard Currier distributor = Metro… …   Wikipedia

  • Hog Pen Match — Type de match au catch Cette page recense les différents types de match de catch hors matchs classiques. Les matchs spéciaux sont plus rares que les matchs « classiques » et se déroulent majoritairement lors des pay per view, notamment… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Brush hog — A brush hog [ [http://davesgarden.com/terms/go/1941/ Definition of brush hog] , Dave s Garden.] is a heavily built rotary mower. Typically these mowers attach to the back of a farm tractor using the three point hitch and are driven via the Power… …   Wikipedia

  • Server hog — A server hog is a user, program or system that places excessive load on a server such that the server performance as experienced by other clients is degraded, or such that the server itself is so heavily loaded that it fails to perform routine… …   Wikipedia

  • Doane's Falls — Open Space Preserve Location Royalston, Massachusetts …   Wikipedia

  • Ottawa River timber trade — Part of a series on History of Ottawa …   Wikipedia

  • Mooney's Bay Park — is a public park in Ottawa, Canada on the Rideau River. Its main entrance is on Riverside Drive, opposite Ridgewood Avenue, but can also be accessed from Hog s Back Road. It has a beach, picnic areas, a childrens playground and is the site of the …   Wikipedia

  • Хогс-Бэк — Водопады и шлюз в 1832 г …   Википедия

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”