…but why write about things like that when we can show you a giant Einstein head made out of Lego bricks!

Yes, the symbol of scientific intellectual rebellion is just as familiar these days as an icon of advertising. From giant posters on Broadway chiding passers-by to assert themselves, to giant adverts for real estate developers painted on the sides of inner-city tattoo parlours, Albert Einstein is indeed everywhere – and he’s here to sell!¹

For example, check out this fairly detailed mural of Einstein on a windswept beach on the side of this Sao Paulo surfboard shop. His Hawaiian shirt even gets painted different colours based on the season.

Quite strangely, Einstein is the mascot for a barber shop in Taipei, because if there’s one hairstyle anyone wants to emulate, it’s Albert Einstein’s. ‘Yeah, I’ll have the “just inserted my finger in an electrical outlet”, thank you.’

Then, of course, there are the businesses which have aped the man’s name entirely. In particular, Einstein seems to be popular with restaurants. A university cafe like this one at the University of Toronto? Makes sense. A pizzeria in Prague? Not so much.

The most unlikely Einstein-related business, however, may be this dance club in Muro del Alcoy, Valencia, which prominently features a mural of Einstein next to a DJ in the middle of a set. One can only wonder which side old Albie would have taken in the UK funky/two-step revival debate.

This Einstein Day, don’t get sucked in by all of this crass commercialism. When your family is gathered around the wormhole in the sitting room tonight to sing relativity carols and watch Yahoo Serious movies, remember the real reason for the season.

Locations: Alberta, Australia, Brazil, Czech Republic, New Jersey, New York, Ontario, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan / Categories: Monuments, Street Views, Weirdness

View in Google Earth

Street View has caught the aftermath of some merry mirthmakers’ acts of defamation: the classic prank known to the sages as ‘TPing’. In the US Mountain West, we’ve found at least two instances of houses engulfed in bathroom towelling (although the folks who did the deed in the second picture could really take a cue from the job done in the first picture, which was far more thorough).

Of course, if you really wanted to get someone good, perhaps you should just use something like this: a giant toilet paper roll the size of a small building. In actuality, it is a small building, namely the public toilet facilities at the Design Museum Gent in Ghent. Clever ones, those Belgians.

You never know when you’ll stumble upon a random toilet lying in the road. Plenty of North American households have mailboxes at the foot of their driveways, but how many have a toilet¹? Over in Paris, this toilet sits by itself at the foot of a tree. Let’s hope it’s being installed at the public toilet next door, because if it isn’t, then the city government has a rather poor sanitation strategy.

Then again, even when provided with the proper facilities, some people would rather just chance it, evidently. Dude, LOOK BEHIND YOU.

While not as outright weird as doing your business in a giant toilet paper roll, this public toilet building in Washington is rather unique, for it is built in the shape of a volcano. Perhaps due to the ‘eruptions’ going on inside.

If you’re not a fan of uniquely-shaped facilities, how about ones that are just plain big? We’re fairly certain that it was not the intention of the International Train & Trolley Museum outside of Orlando, Florida to be housed in a building that looks like it could be the world’s largest toilet, but that is indeed exactly how it appears.

A parting word of advice for when you do manage to find a public toilet nearby: for heaven’s sake, close the bloody door.

Locations: Belgium, Florida, France, Idaho, Ontario, Utah, Washington / Categories: Buildings, Rudeness, Street Views, Structures, Weirdness

View in Google Earth

While it may look as though 8 large trailers have plummeted nose-first from the sky, they were in fact carefully placed by Frank Bates, who happens to own a nearby RV dealership. Google’s 45-degree imagery gives us a great look at the installation from the air.

This blog post has good images and information about the trailers, and the official website has a bunch of links and a documentary video. The neighbours are less than impressed with this apparent advertising ploy, but Bates is insistent that it is a true piece of art¹ inspired by his visit to Cadillac Ranch in Texas

We visited Cadillac Ranch back in the early days of this site. The satellite imagery hasn’t improved, and while there is now a Street View, it’s sadly from the very early low-resolution systems.

We visited Carhenge – another well-known car sculpture – in our Monumental Wannabes post last year. If you have a few hundred thousand dollars to spare apparently it’s now for sale.

We switch modes of transport briefly for a visit to a monument in Santa Rosa, California, that at first glance appears to be a fuzzy obelisk.

Closer observation reveals that it’s actually constructed of bicycle frames – three hundred and forty of them (and one tricycle) according this Wired article. Created by Mark Grieve and Ilana Spector the sculpture is named Cyclisk and stands almost 20m tall.

Google’s newly-released Street View imagery of Belgium allows us to see another bicycle sculpture in the town of Brakel, which is on the route of the Tour of Flanders spring classic race.

Returning to car art, we move to Sydney, Australia, where a large rock appears to have played a key role in a terrible accident involving a red Ford Festiva.

This is actually a sculpture named Still Life With Stone and Car, by artist Jimmie Durham, and it was created through the relatively simple process of, um… dropping a large rock on a car.

Originally placed near the Opera House, the sculpture was later moved to its current location where a pair of signs help dissuade any unknowing passers-by from calling the police to report the accident.

Sadly, this kind of cruel vehicular torture isn’t isolated – in 2009 we visited two places where cars have been impaled in the name of art.

In Toronto this car appears to have been abandoned for so long that it has been reclaimed by nature.

Commonly known as The Garden Car, it is more officially called the Community Vehicular Reclamation Project. More details can be found in this blog post.

Perhaps the most bizarre vehicular artwork can be found in rural Vermont, in the form of a large concrete gorilla holding aloft a Volkswagen Beetle.

The story behind its creation can be found at Roadside America.

To wrap up, a few artworks about which I haven’t been able to find much information. First, another Airstream trailer which has been converted into a spaceship in a park in Sacramento, California.

In Albuquerque an old Chevrolet has been tiled for some reason, and mounted on top of an arch.

And finally, in Geldrop, the Netherlands, a tiny old Fiat 500 has been bronzed and topped with a statue of a girl – the work of artist Carla Rump.

If you know of any other vehicular art, please post it in the comments. I’d particularly be interested to know if anyone from Stockholm knows if this bus-made-of-cars is visible on satellite or Street View. I really wanted to include it in this post but couldn’t find a precise location for it.

Locations: Australia, Belgium, California, Florida, Netherlands, New Mexico, Ontario, Texas, Vermont / Categories: Other Vehicles, Street Views, Structures, Weirdness

View in Google Earth

Windsor

The English Windsor is about 40km west of London. Its Castle, shown above, is justly famous – built by William the Conqueror and still used regularly by the royal family, it is both the largest inhabited castle in the world, and the palace which has been occupied for the longest period of time. We visited it back in 2006.

It bears little resemblance to Windsor, Ontario, which is most often in the news for its dwindling number of car manufacturing plants, and its increasing number of casinos designed to draw American tourists across the border from Detroit.

Cornwall

Cornwall, in England’s far south-west, is a holiday-makers paradise, with pristine beaches, soaring cliffs and picturesque villages, and is of course home to Land’s End.

It would be hard to find any similarities with Cornwall, Ontario, which has a reputation as a rough-edged town polluted by industrial waste and popular with those wanting to smuggle cigarettes across the nearby US border.

One advantage of the toxic waste dumps is that they can apparently serve as ski hills in the winter!

Waterloo

Waterloo is a municipality in Belgium where the famous Battle of Waterloo saw Napoleon’s French army defeated in 1815. A large monument marks the battleground.

The only battle of note in Waterloo, Ontario, is the one for control of the smart-phone market, with Blackberry-manufacturer RIM being based here.

Athens

The Greek capital of Athens is often called ‘the cradle of Western civilisation’ It is home to countless historic buildings and treasures, and was the birthplace of the Olympic Games.

It bears little resemblance to Athens, Ontario, which is a small farming town of 3,000 people, seemingly most famous for its corn festival held every summer. It also has a number of pleasant murals of rural life.

Tweed

The River Tweed is a bucolic waterway in the Scottish borders region. It attracts anglers from all over the world for its renowned salmon fishing.

Tweed, Ontario, is mainly noted for its amusingly-decorated fire hydrants. It was also rumoured to be a hiding place for Elvis by those who believe his death was faked, although – surprisingly – no real evidence of this has ever surfaced.

Khartum

Khartoum is the bustling capital of Sudan, with a turbulent and often lawless history on the banks of the Nile. Recent development has been spurred by income from the country’s oil wells.

It could in no way be confused with Khartum, Ontario, which is, well … not much really. If anything it’s a ghost town. It is identified on the map and there are couple of roadside signs with the town’s name, but there’s nothing between the two signs that could really define it as a community. How it got the name, we have no idea!

If you have a favourite namesake, send it to us through our submission form and it might be included in a future post!

Locations: England, Greece, Ontario, Scotland, Sudan / Categories: Buildings, Monuments, Street Views, Weirdness

View in Google Earth

Reader Dave Schubert identifies the plane as being in an engine test stand. According to Google Earth’s historical imagery feature this image was taken on the 27th of June 2010, which is interesting as Concorde was retired in 2003 – so it’s perhaps a little strange that they would be testing the engines.

Next, to Canada’s busiest airport, Toronto Pearson. However, we’re looking at a very American icon – the Blue Angels aerobatic team.

More formally known as the Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, these planes were spotted by Kevin Hodgson. The six F/A-18 Hornets are seen parked near to a seventh plane, a two-seater F/A-18B that can be used as a backup plane if necessary. We can also see the C-130T Hercules nicknamed Fat Albert, which carries support personnel, spare parts and technical equipment.

You can read more about the Blue Angels at their official site, and at Wikipedia.

Given the recent situation in Libya, it may be a good thing that eight C-130 Hercules that were ordered by the Gaddafi regime are stuck in the southern US state of Georgia.

The desert-camouflaged planes were ordered and built at this Lockheed plant at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in the early 1970s. However before they could be delivered, the US imposed sanctions on Libya.

Because they are technically the property of the Libyan government, the planes cannot be moved, so they sit on flat tires, surrounded by weeds in the distant reaches of the base. Thanks to Cafe de Unie, SecretAgent Man and Jonathan Peterson for sending this one in.

Unused planes can be a problem for any airport, though at Hot Springs in Arkansas they park them a little more neatly and efficiently than they do at Manas Airport in Kyrgyzstan or Wilson Airport in Kenya. Thanks to ‘Me’, nga and Bryan Johnson for these.

Moving on to crashed planes (nervous flyers should probably stop reading at this point!), we start with a couple of real downed planes. This Curtis C-46F Commando crashed in November 1979, shortly after taking off from Churchill in northern Canada.

It was reported to us by Lindsay Marshall, and airliners.net has some good pictures. Apparently the inside has been setup with a picnic table, and is a local tourist attraction.

Just a few months ago, two people unfortunately lost their lives when their small plane crashed into Lake Winnebago, Wisconsin. New satellite imagery just happened to capture a crane recovering the wreckage. Thanks to milwhcky for reporting this one via Virtual Globetrotting.

Hollywood is fond of creating its own plane crashes, and the set from 2005′s War of the Worlds is now part of Universal Studio’s tour, as shown in this YouTube video. Thanks to Anthony Moore for the suggestion.

The studio spent $2million to bring an unused 747 to the lot, carefully broke it apart and then built the houses affected by the crash in the movie. Google’s 45-degree imagery allows us to see the set from different perspectives, including engines lying next to a house, seats in the ripped apart cabin, and the charred tail section.

Another apparently horrific plane crash was spotted by Bryan Johnson at the former Alameda Naval Air Station near San Francisco.

Some of the 45-degree imagery was apparently taken on a different day, and reveals crowds of people and emergency vehicles.

However, we can also see lots of technical equipment, including a camera crane, so it’s clear that this isn’t a real crash, and Geek.com reveals that it is, in fact, a set for the TV show Trauma.

We had previously featured Alameda for its role in a Matrix film, though personally I’m hoping that someday we’ll see images of the Mythbusters team who film regularly at this location.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this post. Please use the suggestion form if you know if interesting locations that you think we should feature.

Locations: Arkansas, California, England, Georgia, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Manitoba, Ontario / Categories: Abandoned, Aircraft, Movie Locations, Shadows

View in Google Earth

Whether they’re big or small, year-round or just for a weekend, carnivals and fairs draw in people of all ages. Some fairs are positively massive, such as the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto, which takes place every August.

Many carnivals are small, travelling affairs, setting up in local parking lots or neighborhood parks for a two or three-day shot before moving on. Put it in a really small town, and it can shut whole parts of a town down for a day or two, as we see here in remote Snow Lake, Manitoba, where the main street has been completely taken over by the fair.

Carnival attractions are a popular feature along tourist boardwalks, such as the Santa Monica Pier in California. The Street View trike made its way down the pier to catch many of the sights of Pacific Park, the oceanfront amusement park located right on the pier.

Here, we get a great close-up look at some classic carny games like the ring toss, balloons and darts and the ever-infamous milk bottles. Here are some tips for you marks out there: the rings don’t fit the bottles, the balloons are underinflated, the darts are dull, and one of the bottles is often weighted down. Ha, ha, we’ve ruined the carnival industry forever!¹

A good carnival is built around rides. Of course, the ferris wheel and the bumper cars are standard attractions, like the ones at this beachfront resort in Eforie Nord, Romania, which looks pretty solid.

But then there are the sketchier carnivals, where the rusty rides may be covered in knock-off Disney and Looney Tunes characters, or showing far too much rust, or just look underwhelming. Take, for example, the world’s lamest karting track. Or this unenclosed spin-‘til-you-vomit ride. Or this delightfully rickety dragon boat. Alto, indeed.

Alas, all good things must come to end, and eventually after years of use and abuse every carnival ride is sent to the junkpile. Sometimes, they don’t even get that. Just look at this string of old rides left to rot in a Mexico City alleyway.

Oh, Daisy Duck, we feel your pain.

Locations: California, Manitoba, Mexico, New York, Ontario, Romania, Texas / Categories: Crowds, Street Views, Theme Parks

View in Google Earth

In an effort to attract families, this park features both a carousel, visible in the north-west corner of the stadium grounds, and a ferris wheel with ball-shaped cars.

Home to the Tigers, there are feline statues and motifs all over the building, including this 4.5m tall figurehead at the entrance to the stadium, flanked by two giant baseball bats. Note that the struts holding up the name sign are also bat-shaped!

The blue tank in centre field is a large fountain which gives elaborate displays between innings and after every Tiger score. Note the vehicles in each corner – the fountain is usually sponsored by one of the car manufacturers for which Detroit is renowned.

Unlike football stadiums and multi-purpose arenas, which tend to be quite generic, baseball stadiums provide architects and teams with much more freedom to add unique features to try to make their buildings attractive to the ticket-buying public.

A construction boom in the last couple of decades saw a trend towards smaller ‘retro’-styled parks topped off with design elements which range from the whimsical to the spectacular. The first of these was Oriole Park in Baltimore.

The stadium was built on former train yards owned by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and is officially called ‘Oriole Park at Camden Yards’. A former B&O building dominates the view from much of the park, and stretches the length of Eutaw Street which is closed on game days, with cheap tickets allowing access to standing areas with a view of the field.

When a home run lands in the street, the spot is marked with a plaque. See if you can also find the two orange seats inside the stadium that mark the locations of famous home runs!

There are two American League stadiums with retractable roofs. In Seattle, the satellite image of Safeco Field¹ shows the 3-section roof open and the infield apparently set up for some kind of corporate function, with tables and chairs and a small stage. When open, the roof is partly cantilevered over the train tracks which run past the stadium. Note that the sponsor’s huge logo is clearly visible whether the roof is open or closed.

Unlike virtually all other domed stadiums, the roof here does not fully enclose the facility to allow heating or cooling, it merely serves to protect it from the frequent rain that occurs in the Pacific Northwest.

Toronto’s variable seasons also make a domed stadium a necessity. With interesting timing, the satellite images caught the Rogers Centre²roof partway through the 20-minute rotational process of opening (or closing), showing the smallest of the segments on the west side of the building.

We also get an unusual perspective on the CN Tower, formerly the world’s tallest building, and one of the earliest sites visited by Google Sightseeing.

In New York, the new Yankee Stadium sits across just to the north of the recently-demolished original 1923 version.

The Street View images in the area allow us to see both stadiums standing side-by-side, and of course you can use Google Earth’s time slider to see how the sites have changed over many years – see prime parkland transformed into sports facility at great expense!

The focus here is on celebrating the game’s traditions, through artwork, monuments and historical items on display. Perhaps these distract game attendees from the exorbitant $2.3billion construction cost and seats which are some of the most expensive in professional sports.

Of particular controversy are those in the ‘Legends Suite’ – several rows behind home plate where seats have ranged in price from $500 to over $2,000! Opening in the midst of an economic crisis, takeup was slow, and the public perception of this zone fenced off from the surrounding fans was quite poor. As a result Yankees games on television often show many of these seats vacant.

Empty seats are also a problem on the other side of the continent where the Oakland Athletics play in a mixed-use stadium that, in 1996, had 10,000 additional seats constructed. This development – nicknamed Mount Davis after the notorious owner of the NFL’s Raiders – is covered during baseball season so that it doesn’t look so bad on television. The huge tarps, with the Athletics’ logo, are visible on Google’s recent 45 degree imagery.

Just to the south-east, in Anaheim, Angel Stadium is also visible in the 45 degree images. It is an older stadium, having opened in 1966. However, since Disney took over the team in 1996 it has been extensively modernised. Many new features have been added, including two large red caps by the main entrance, and an attempt to bring nature to the ballpark, with a rocky waterfall and trees beyond the centre field fence.

The iconic ‘Big A’ is a 70m tall metal structure that used to support the scoreboard inside the stadium. It was moved to the parking lot in the late 1970s. The ‘halo’ lights up whenever the Angels win a game.

To finish, here are a few notes about the other American League Stadiums.

Fenway Park in Boston is the oldest MLB stadium, and is best known for ‘the green monster’ – an 11m high wall in left field, though the satellite image doesn’t do it justice. (We can however see the grounds crew hard at work, and the field being setup for batting practice.) It also has a red seat marking the landing location of the longest home run, though I can’t find it on Google’s images.

In Kansas City, the Royals play in Kauffman Stadium which features a waterfall and acrobatic fountains which play between innings.

Google’s satellite images show players training on the field in Cleveland.

In Texas, Rangers Stadium is the only ballpark that I’ve noticed has its own heliport – just across the road to the west of the building. The exterior wall of the stadium is ringed with beautiful stone carvings, though they’re hard to make out on the first-generation low-res Street View images.

The Tampa Bay Rays play in a domed stadium which is actually in St Petersburg, Florida.

In Minneapolis, the Minnesota Twins play at Target Field, a new stadium not yet shown on the satellite images, though we can see it – and its dedicated transit station – mostly completed on Street View.

Finally, the Chicago White Sox play at US Cellular Field, which has a huge list of attractions – from luxury restaurants to misting rooms to cool off on hot summer days – though none of them are really visible from above.

Every stadium can be explored in more detail in the appropriate team’s section on the MLB site, and Wikipedia has good information as well.

Part two of this series will cover the National League, including a stadium with – would you believe – a swimming pool!

Locations: California, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Ontario, Texas, Washington / Categories: Buildings, Monuments, Stadiums and Sport, Street Views, Structures

View in Google Earth

The walls are riddled with cracks, as though the building had been rocked by a huge earthquake. Just one of several Ripley’s attractions in this tourist-destination city, it is a relatively recent building. The original museum here was destroyed by a real disaster in the form of a fire in 1992.

Tourist towns are a natural fit for Ripley’s bizarre collections which include genetically mutated animals (two headed creatures are a favourite) and relics from infamous events. In Niagara Falls, Ontario, visitors who tire of watching water flow over a cliff can walk up Clifton Hill where they’ll find a prostrate version of the Empire State Building, complete with King Kong.

The details are worth noting, including the person hanging out of a window and the helicopter on the ‘top’ of the building.

Meanwhile Blackpool’s beachfront museum has a veritable trove of exterior oddities, including Jeep embedded in the entranceway with an explorer climbing a rope to escape and a pair of legs sticking out of the wall. On the roof there’s a dinosaur wearing a large clock – maybe he thinks he’s Flavor Flav?

It’s a little hard to make out on the satellite view, but the Odditorium in Thailand’s resort town Pattaya has a plane crashed into its walls. Something similar also happened at the Ripley’s in the small town of Wisconsin Dells.

Another transportation-themed museum is found in Panama City Beach, Florida, where an ocean liner has ‘washed up’ several hundred metres from the shore.

The Street View car even pulled into the parking lot for a visit – giving us a close up look at the lifeboat!

In Branson, Missouri, there is another ‘earthquake-ravaged‘ building, while in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, the museum looks as though it has been damaged by the many storms that hit this hurricane-prone region.

Finally, the Ripley’s museum in Guadalajara, Mexico, is not at all architecturally unusual, but Street View does allow us to see an exhibit – a silver Rolls Royce, which I believe (if Google Translate is correct) was once the property of La Doña Maria Félix, a notable Mexican actress.

You can learn more at Wikipedia, or Ripley’s official website.

Locations: England, Florida, Mexico, Missouri, Ontario, Tennessee, Thailand, Wisconsin / Categories: Buildings, Street Views, Weirdness

View in Google Earth

Firstly, there are bays (and sometimes lakes) named after days of the week; Wednesday Bay, Thursday Bay, Friday Bay, Saturday Bay, and Sunday Bay.

There are also lakes named after body parts; Finger Lake, Elbow Lake, Bone Lake, and Organ Lake to name a few.

One of my personal favorites is the series of lakes named after That Man and This Man. But then don’t forget about the Other Man (Lake) or even No Man (Lake) at all!

Some lakes just sound similar like Rum Lake and Ram Lake.

There’s even a Disappointment Lake for a good excuse when you have a bad fishing trip.

I think a Def Leppard fan got to name this one Rock of Ages Lake.

When the creative juices stop flowing sometimes it’s best to resort to numbers, like Eagles Nest Number One Lake… and Two Lake, Three Lake, and Four Lake.

I think the best grouping however has to be the region named after vegetables – Kraut Lake, Parsnip Lake, Bean Lake, Carrot Lake, Potato Lake, Celery Lake, Squash Lake, Turnip Lake, Onion Lake, Cucumber Lake, Tomato Lake, Peanut Lake, Strawberry Lake to name a few.

Take a look around and see what you can find!

There is of course more information on Boundary Waters at Wikipedia.

Locations: Minnesota, Ontario / Categories: Natural Landmarks

View in Google Earth

Used today for recreational boating, the Canal was constructed in the early 19th century for military use. Supply ships from the British-controlled Upper Canada were under threat from American forces in New York state if they travelled from Kingston to Montreal along the Saint Lawrence River. The Rideau Canal allowed boats to travel safely north to the Ottawa River then east to Montreal.

Lieutenant Colonel John By of the Royal Engineers was given the unenviable task of creating the Canal in an inhospitable landscape of rock, swamp and forest, while receiving insufficient funding from the British government. His achievements led to the naming of the fledgling community as Bytown, though it was renamed to Ottawa in 1855.

Our tour of the 202km long waterway begins in Ottawa with the flight of eight locks¹ that lift boats 24m from the Ottawa River to the section of Canal which runs through the capital’s downtown. This man-made section bypasses the rapids at Hog’s Back and the waterfall where the Rideau River meets the Ottawa River.

Winter temperatures (and a good deal of maintenance work), transform a 7.8km length of the canal into the Rideau Canal Skateway – the world’s largest skating rink². Each year tens of thousands of people enjoy outdoor skating during the Winterlude festival.

Street View visited Ottawa in the early spring, after the ice had melted but before the water levels were allowed to rise for boat traffic. We can still see – from the road named in honour of the Canal’s creator, Colonel By Drive – the temporary huts installed each winter which allow skaters to thaw out their toes, or warm up with hot chocolate and the local delicacy, Beaver Tails.

South of Hog’s Back, the route is taken over by the Rideau River which takes boaters through a number of communities and seven more locks on the way to Merrickville. Here we find the distinctive and imposing Blockhouse, constructed in 1832 to protect the locks from American attacks. Today it serves as a museum.

While many mills were destroyed in the construction of locks along the system, the mills at Merrickville were preserved, only to be put out of business a couple of decades later when a large rail hub developed in nearby Smiths Falls. Here, a new large combined lock was built in the mid-1970s to replace three old locks, resulting in the highest single lift (almost 8m) of all the locks in the system. We can only see the last of the three old locks, but the difference in depth of the new lock is clearly apparent.

There are many different types of bridges along the Canal, including swing and lift bridges which open to allow larger boats to pass. Smiths Falls is also notable for the Scherzer rolling-lift rail bridge (visible here beyond the ‘detached’ lock) which was built apart from the road bridges to reduce the need for bridge openings. The rail line was closed many years ago and the bridge is now permanently raised.

Travelling south-west from Smiths Falls, the Canal passes through a series of lakes, connected by rivers and man-made channels. The lakes are popular vacation spots, and many are lined with cottages or summer homes. Big Rideau Lake is the largest body of water along the route.

Newboro is the highest point of the Canal and one of the locations where the difficult history of its construction is most renowned, both in terms of the labour required and the human cost.

Surveyors originally expected an easy cut across the isthmus between Mud and Rideau lakes, but workers encountered significantly more rock than was expected, which led to painfully slow progress. At the same time, malaria struck the workforce and their families, with hundreds dying from the disease from 1828 to 1830, while many others deserted to escape the terrible camp conditions. In total more than a thousand people are estimated to have died from disease and accidents during the construction of the Canal. There are memorials to these fallen workers in both Ottawa and Kingston.

Many years later, in 1966, the Newboro lock met with controversy when it was the first to be converted from manual to electric operation. Boaters and residents near all the lock stations felt that removing manual lock gates would forever change the character of the Canal. Opposition was sufficient that only two other locks have been converted since then.

The passage into Lake Opinicon³ also gave the engineers considerable trouble, though the situation was eased when mill-owner Samuel Chaffey died of malaria, at which time his widow sold the land to allow an easier location for the lock, now known as Chaffey’s where there is a swing bridge over the lock, and a defensible lockmasters house, which is also now a museum.

The Jones Falls area was another difficult situation for By to surmount, with numerous options being explored to bypass the rapids. Eventually a dam was constructed, standing over 18m tall and 65m wide, though the stone in the area was unsuitable meaning the rocks for the dam had to be quarried some distance away. Four locks allow passage into Whitefish Lake.

Passing through a couple more lakes, the Upper and Lower Brewers Locks, and a stretch of the Cataraqui river, brings us to Kingston Mills, the final flight of four locks which allow boaters to continue downstream. Eventually they pass beneath the slightly rusty beams of a final lift bridge⁴ to access Lake Ontario.

The Rideau Info site is an excellent resource with a detailed history section – including a biography of Colonel By, and information about each lock station, both practical and historical.

Thanks to MatB.

Locations: Ontario / Categories: Bridges, Buildings, Natural Landmarks, Street Views, Structures, Watercraft, World Heritage Sites

View in Google Earth