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The field notes of Thomas Burrowes capture some of the challenges that faced bridge-builders on the Ottawa River. “On my arrival at the Falls of the Chaudiere,” he wrote...
| “I found Lieut.-Col. By was there awaiting the coming of His Lordship, the Earl of Dalhousie, Governor-General of British North America, whom I had passed on the way up…. On Monday, the 25th of September, 1826, the day after his Lordship arrived, he directed Colonel By to commence the erection of a Chain of Bridges over the several chasms and rock Islands below the romantic Falls at this place…. I was immediately ordered to measure the Gap or chasm at the north or Hull side of the River, and to draw a design for a bridge of rough stone to be thrown over the said chasm….” |
The canal works on the southern shore of the Ottawa River were separated from Columbia Falls Village (later Hull) on the north by Chaudière Falls, a series of plunging falls that Thomas Burrowes painted in 1831. Burrowes’s first assignment was to draw up plans for a bridge. |
Click to see a larger image (357K)
The Great Kettle, Chaudiere Falls; taken from the Centre of the Truss Bridge, 1831
Watercolour
Thomas Burrowes fonds
Reference Code: C 1-0-0-0-7
Archives of Ontario, I0002124 |
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