morning jog
05.30 did my morning jog along this canal and came back at 07.00 to take some pics......
In winter,
a section of the Rideau Canal passing through central Ottawa becomes officially
the world's largest skating rink.[15] The cleared length is 7.8 kilometres (4.8
mi) and has the equivalent surface area of 90 Olympic ice hockey rinks. It runs
from the Hartwell locks at Carleton University to the locks between the
Parliament Buildings and the Château Laurier, including Dow's Lake in between.
It serves as a popular tourist attraction and recreational area and is also the
focus of the Winterlude festival in Ottawa. Beaver Tails, a fried dough pastry,
are sold along with other snacks and beverages, in kiosks on the skateway. In
January 2008, Winnipeg, Manitoba, achieved the record of the world's longest
skating rink at a length of 8.54 kilometres but with a width of only 2 to 3
metres wide[15] on its Assiniboine River and Red River at The Forks. In
response, the Rideau Canal was rebranded as "the world's largest skating
rink".
Although
some residents of Ottawa had been using the canal as an impromptu skating
surface for years, the official use of the canal as a skateway and tourist
attraction is a more recent innovation. In fact, as recently as the 1970s, the
city government of Ottawa considered paving over the canal in order to make an
expressway.[16] The federal government's ownership of the canal, however,
prevented the city from pursuing this proposal. When Doug Fullerton was
appointed chair of the National Capital Commission, he proposed a recreational
corridor around the canal, including the winter skateway between Carleton
University and Confederation Park. The plan was implemented on January 18,
1971, despite opposition by city council, and 50,000 people skated on the canal
on the first weekend.[16] City councillor and author Clive Doucet credits this
transformation of the canal with reinvigorating the communities of the Glebe,
Old Ottawa East and Old Ottawa South.
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