While the towns at each end of the Rideau Canal – Kingston and Bytown – flourished partly as a result of improved communications in the 1840s, the canal did not bring the widespread prosperity that the canal-builders had forecast. The waterway had been designed as a military supply route and would have fulfilled that role if it had been needed. But war against the United States never came, and the canal simply became part of a transportation triangle that connected Montreal, Bytown and Kingston. The canal’s greatest success – and it was short-lived – was thus as a regional route, bringing settlers into an area where roads were lacking and allowing them to send their produce to market.

Transportation
Settlement
Towns
Industry