Walking the Lower town By Wash
For nearly 50 years the By Ward Market had its own canal
For the past hour I have been following a ghost through an old cedar swamp, zigzagging my way through shopping malls and parking lots in and around the By Ward Market, searching for a waterway that no longer exists — the Lowertown By Wash.
I am looking for anything I can find of this small canal that ran through the heart of the By Ward Market in the middle of the 1800s. It was more of a drainage ditch than a Grand Canal, I learn, but for a time it was navigable enough that barges ran up and down its length. Therewas evena grist millon York Street — owned by Jean-Baptiste St. Louis— that used the power of the current in the By Wash to turn its grinding stones. People fished in the water way, they washed their clothes in it, andin the winter time they played shinny on it, but of all this there is no longer any sign.
Asmy wife and I follow the route marked on an old city map it is difficult to imagine there was ever any significant water here at all, in a canal or otherwise. In fact, Lowertown might still be a bayou if it hadn’t been for the water management genius of Colonel John By, the British military engineer who created the By Wash as an over flow channel during construction of the Rideau Canal locks in 1828.
About where the National Arts Centreis today, Colonel By devised adam and sluice system that would create a docking and turning basin above the locks, and allow excess water to be released into a by wash that would follow a natural creek bed down through Lowertown to the Rideau River. The By Wash would also serve to drain much of the standing water throughout Lowertown.
According to Rideau historian and author Ken Watson, while the By Wash system itself remained in use for 50 years, Colonel By’s plan for the large canal turning basin had to be scrapped. “The original proposal for Ottawa had four locks, a turning basin, and then another four locks,” hesaid. “Whena larger size of lock was approved in June of 1828, the central basin had to be abandoned in order to fit the present eight locks in flight.”
I wonder what folk would have seen as they went about their daily business here 140 years ago. The By Wash, after all, played an important role in the commerce and livelihood of Lowertown.
Sixth-generation Lowertown resident Marc Aubin, a former president of the Lower town Community Association, describe show the By Wash created amuch-needed economic boost for the area.
“The merchants in the area were able to use the By Wash as a mini-canal to bring in goods and other products which made it easier for them to generate commerce in Lowertown. You have to remember that in those days, when ev- erything was dirt roads, and for a good part of the year you almost couldn’t travel on those roads with anything too heavy, having a mini-canal through another part of the city was an advantage— a real positive for Lower town even though it was supposed to be the poorer area of town.”
The course of the By Wash is clearly marked on maps from the period, so it makes a fun orienteering exercise to identify way points against a modern city plan. Asmuch as I would like to be able to walk through brick walls, my wife and I manage to scout a reasonable path from the ‘head waters’ of the By-Wash at the Rideau Canal near the National Arts Centre, to where it once emptied into the Rideau River in Bordeleau Park at the northeast end of King Edward Avenue.
The walk able route goes from the Rideau Canal through the Rideau Centre to the Bay and out onto George Street near the By Ward Market building. From there it is a short walk east along George to just past Dalhousie Street, where a shortcut takes you through to York Street opposite the Cundell horse stables. The By Wash hike continues east along York before turning north onto King Edward.
A city archive photograph of the By Wash shows an idyllic view of a well-constructed section of canal along King Edward. Louis A. Grison, a captain of the Old Rideau Volunteer Fire Brigade, who died in 1916 at the age of 87, once said he remembered “when King Edward Avenue was originally a deep ditch, a heavy stream of water coming down what was known as the by wash from the canal.”
Several heritage buildings that were in existence at the time can still be found along King Edward, the broad avenue that was widened specifically for the By Wash. Today there seems to be nothing left. After nearly 50 years of use the By Wash had deteriorated to such a state of filth that the city took action in 1874 and filled it in. It was aningloriou send to what, if it were around today, would be the toast of the town.