Bytown’s timber camp became Canada’s bilingual capital on two rivers
Ottawa, Canada’s capital in southeastern Ontario, sits where the Ottawa and Rideau Rivers meet, facing Gatineau, Quebec, in a bilingual metro. Founded as Bytown in 1826, incorporated 1850, renamed Ottawa in 1855, and amalgamated into today’s city in 2001, it hosts Parliament, the Supreme Court, and embassies.
Ottawa, Canada's capital, lies in southeastern Ontario where the Rideau River joins the Ottawa River, across from Gatineau, Quebec. It forms the heart of the Ottawa–Gatineau census metropolitan area and the National Capital Region. The 2021 count gave the city 1,017,449 people and the metro 1,488,307, fourth in Canada on both measures. Its name, chosen in 1855, honours the river, whose title comes from the Algonquin adawe, "to trade"; modern Algonquin calls the city Odàwàg.
The valley became livable roughly 10,000 years ago once the Champlain Sea drained away. Spearpoints dated 8,000 to 8,500 years old mark the earliest human presence, and trading and communication networks were well established 6,000 years ago. Permanent settlements with probable hearths and heavy tools appear 3,000 to 3,500 years back, including sites at the mouth of the Gatineau River, where Algonquin people fished, hunted, foraged and traded at a meeting point of three rivers.
Étienne Brûlé, in 1610, was the first recorded European on the Ottawa River, bound for the Great Lakes, and Samuel de Champlain described local waterfalls and Algonquin encounters three years afterwards. New Englander Philemon Wright started a lumber settlement on the north bank, in today's Hull, on 7 March 1800; with five families and twenty-five labourers he also formed Wright's Town, forerunner of Gatineau, and began floating valley timber to Quebec City. Bytown was founded in 1826, incorporated in 1850 and renamed in 1855; after many annexations, a new amalgamated city replaced it in 2001.
A council of 24 wards plus a mayor elected citywide, all chosen by first-past-the-post, governs under Ontario's City of Ottawa Act. The federal government is headquartered here, along with Parliament, the Supreme Court, the viceroy's residence, the Prime Minister's Office and many embassies. No Canadian city has a larger share of university graduates; Carleton and the University of Ottawa lead its campuses alongside Algonquin College and Collège La Cité, while the National Gallery and National Arts Centre head its cultural scene. More than 11 million visitors arrive each year.
Source: Ottawa
