Old Ottawa construction photos

[harls]

Does anyone have older photos of buildings under construction in Ottawa? (the first thing that comes to my mind are the gov't offices in Hull, Place de Ville C, or other buildings downtown).

?

[Kitchissippi]

Portage III under construction. Note the logs they still floated down the river until the late 70s - Quite the environmental havoc under the nose of Parliament.

[lrt's friend]

I always liked this photo of the construction of the trainyards district and the new railway station around 1966.

[harls]

Amazing, guys.

lrt - when did construction start on the Queensway? do you have any pics?

[Aylmer]

Well,

Before the Queensway (1945ish)



And during:

(carling)


(elgin)


from thekingshighway

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by harls

Amazing, guys.

lrt - when did construction start on the Queensway? do you have any pics?

Funny you should ask. I have researched that, at least for the east end. The first thing that was built was the new Hurdman's Bridge, which opened in 1955. You can see both the old and new bridges in the photo and I have memories from early childhood of driving by the old bridge blocked off with big stones, so that was before the Queensway opened and the old River Road was still open for traffic. Queen Elizabeth inaugerated construction of the Queensway at Hurdman's Bridge during her 1957 visit. The eastern leg of the Queensway between Nicholas Street and Montreal Road with an signaled intersection at Blair Road opened in 1961.

I believe a photo of the new Hurdman's Bridge before it was connected to the Queensway can be found in a CD on the history of Riverview Park. I will try to find my copy of it.

[lrt's friend]

Another favourite photo. The opening of the current Billings Bridge in 1915. Notice the trees on the left. There used to be an island in the river that the bridge crossed over. I wonder if the island washed away over the years. I got into an argument with an old timer who suggested that the island was still there. It isn't.

look at the link. The picture transfers over too large.

http://www.gloucesterhistory.com/

[lrt's friend]

..

[waterloowarrior]

from the Ottawa Project

1966 - NAC and confederation park

Image courtesy Natural Resources Canada, Earth Sciences Sector

Looks quite a bit different, doesn’t it? The hodgepog of buildings north of the future site of City Hall has vanished, replaced here by efforts to build the National Arts Centre and create Confederation Park in time for Canada’s centennial in 1967. And what of that future City Hall site? Well, it’s taken up by a sprawling complex of “temporary” buildings constructed during the Second World War as office space for military personnel. Meanwhile, tracks still run into Union Station, but not for much longer: 1966 was the year the National Capital Comission decided to take out the railway tracks and replace them with a path system and Colonel By Drive. Finally, Mackenzie King Bridge now stretches across the canal, still 15 years away from being made part of the backbone of Ottawa’s transit system.

Image courtesy Canada Science and Technology Museum, CN Images of Canada Gallery

This is another angle from around the same time, though the large rail yard is still intact and Mackenzie King Bridge is only partly complete. You can also see the temporary military office buildings better from this angle, looking somewhat like an attempt to mimic the style of the American military’s Pentagon

[Aylmer]

Union...

How I'd like to see you back in business.

[waterloowarrior]

http://www.ottawa.ca/residents/herit...ilding_en.html

Parliament... 1860s!

[drawarc]

Commonwealth Building u/c, 1954



Link: http://urbsite.blogspot.com/search?q...ealth+building

Not old, but pics of WEP tower 2 construction from 2001.





Photos by me

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by Kitchissippi

Portage III under construction. Note the logs they still floated down the river until the late 70s - Quite the environmental havoc under the nose of Parliament.

Environmental havoc?

[bradnixon]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

I always liked this photo of the construction of the trainyards district and the new railway station around 1966.

What's up with that overpass of the Queensway east of the Alta Vista (now Riverside/Vanier Pkwy) interchange? I've never seen that before...

[Dado]

I've seen a picture of this before... the City Hall gallery had an exhibition on the rail history of Ottawa awhile back and there were overhead pictures of this area over a few decades.

I think the overpass was to allow a "short cut" from Tremblay to the Vanier Parkway and westbound Queensway without having to go all the way around the interchange.

If you look carefully you can see a second overpass under construction. It's between the railway station site and the Vanier Pkwy overpass. I think that one was to allow traffic from the eastbound Queensway a quicker way into the railway station.


All of this was removed by the time the Transitway was built (it might have been removed as part of its construction).

[Kitchissippi]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

Environmental havoc?

Have you no idea how much pollution and fish habitat destruction those log drives caused? At least 10% of the logs sank, and there are still thousands of logs that remain in the depths of the Ottawa River, enough to keep this company going

[O-Town Hockey]

Originally Posted by Kitchissippi

Have you no idea how much pollution and fish habitat destruction those log drives caused? At least 10% of the logs sank, and there are still thousands of logs that remain in the depths of the Ottawa River, enough to keep this company going

My good buddy has a cottage on the Ottawa River near Fitzroy, just downstream of the dam. We pull out at least 3 or 4 huge deadheads from the river every year. Some of them we chop for firewood, but the really nice ones we sell to local milling companies. This year, with the low water levels, I've never seen so many of them with their tips floating just at or below the water's surface....a nice way to ruin a fast boat!

[DubberDom]

keep these pics coming, I love it!!

[bradnixon]

Originally Posted by Dado

I think the overpass was to allow a "short cut" from Tremblay to the Vanier Parkway and westbound Queensway without having to go all the way around the interchange.

If you look carefully you can see a second overpass under construction. It's between the railway station site and the Vanier Pkwy overpass. I think that one was to allow traffic from the eastbound Queensway a quicker way into the railway station.


All of this was removed by the time the Transitway was built (it might have been removed as part of its construction).

Cool... thanks!

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by Dado

I've seen a picture of this before... the City Hall gallery had an exhibition on the rail history of Ottawa awhile back and there were overhead pictures of this area over a few decades.

I think the overpass was to allow a "short cut" from Tremblay to the Vanier Parkway and westbound Queensway without having to go all the way around the interchange.

If you look carefully you can see a second overpass under construction. It's between the railway station site and the Vanier Pkwy overpass. I think that one was to allow traffic from the eastbound Queensway a quicker way into the railway station.


All of this was removed by the time the Transitway was built (it might have been removed as part of its construction).

In 1966, there was no Vanier Parkway. This came quite a bit later. The CPR that crossed Overbrook and Vanier where the Vanier Parkway is today was only abandoned that year. At that time, that interchange was named the Alta Vista Drive interchange. Alta Vista Drive followed a direct path to the interchange in those days, crossing through the middle of the Cancer Park at the corner of Riverside Drive and Industrial. The Transitway access at that intersection was actually an earlier connection to Riverside Drive. Going north of the interchange it fed onto a residential street just north of RCMP headquarters and then to River Road.

Over the years, all the roads in this area have been rerouted a number of times.

When I was a kid, Riverside Drive in the area of Hurdman's Bridge was but a rough country road and ran right next to the river near the bridge.