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360° of the view behind the Supreme Court of Canada, in Ottawa.
The island you see to the right of the tree at the beginning and end of the video is Victoria more...Island, still owned by the Algonquin Indians. Out of sight behind it is the Chaudiere (cauldron) Falls which powered the lumber mills, the main industry of Bytown (named after Colonel By who designed and built the Rideau Canal between Bytown and Kingston Ontario).
Lumber was the main industry of Ottawa (renamed fron Bytown when it was chosen as Canada's capital) and Hull, on the other side of the river, into the 1960s. I can still remember the huge log booms covering the surface of the river into the mid 1960s. Some of the old mill buildings, including the E.B. Eddy mills can still be seen around the Chaudiere. They are a few which survived the fire that destroyed much of Hull and a good bit of Ottawa when, on April 26, 1900, millions of stacks of lumber caught fire, spreading across the river and up into the city.
Now, the main "industry" in Ottawa and Hull is Government and high-tech. Most of the buildings you see across the river are government offices.
As I scan down-river, you can see the Canadian Museum of Civilization which stands on land once used as the staging area for Native peoples as they conducted their seasonal migrations up and down the Ottawa River. They, and the Voyageurs who brought furs and trade goods up and down the Ottawa, would rest up before and after the big portage on the Hull side, past the Chaudiere.
Spanning the river, just beyond the museum is the Alexandra Bridge used to be one of the rail bridges across the Ottawa but now carried foot and car traffic. On the Ottawa side of the bridge is Nepean Point with the outdoor Astrolab Theatre, The National Gallery (the reddish-glowing glass tower), Notre Dame Catherdral (the two lit spires), The American Embassy (sitting like a prison in the middle of the city -- can you tell I am not impressed?), and Parliament Hill -- Canada's capital buildings.
The Parliament Buildings consist of the main Pariliament building with the domination Peace Tower, rebuilt after the fire destroyed the entire main building with the exception of the Parilamentary Library (the round building behind the main Parliament building), and the East and West Blocks.
The low, white building visible between the West Block and the Supreme Court Building is one of the last remaining wartime "Temprorary Buildings" built during WWII to house wartime government offices on a "temporary" basis. Many survived through the 1960's and some up into the 1980s and 1990s. less
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