Colonel By Drive

Colonel By Drive (french: Promenade Colonel By) is an long scenic

parkway A parkway is a landscaped thoroughfare.''"parkway."''Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Merriam-Webster, 2002. http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com (14 Apr. 2007). The term is particularly used for a roadway in a park or ...

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the c ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada named after

Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge ...

John By Lieutenant-Colonel John By (7 August 1779 – 1 February 1836) was an English military engineer. He is best known for having supervised the construction of the Rideau Canal and for having founded Bytown in the process. It developed and was desi ...

. It runs along the

Rideau Canal The Rideau Canal, also known unofficially as the Rideau Waterway, connects Canada's capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, to Lake Ontario and the Saint Lawrence River at Kingston. It is 202 kilometres long. The name ''Rideau'', French for "curtain", ...

from the end of

Sussex Drive Sussex Drive (french: Promenade Sussex), also known as Ottawa Regional Road93, is an arterial road in Ottawa, Ontario, the capital of Canada. It is one of the city's main ceremonial and institutional routes. Travelling roughly parallel to the Ot ...

Rideau Street Rideau Street (french: Rue Rideau) is a major street in downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and one of Ottawa's oldest and most famous streets running from Wellington Street in the west to Montreal Road in the east where it connects to the Vanier ...

. It then continues south and west to

Hog's Back Road Hog's Back Road is a road in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The road connects Meadowlands Drive and Prince of Wales Drive to Riverside Drive and Brookfield Road. The road is used as the boundary line between Mooney's Bay Park and Hog's Back Park. I ...

, winding through several residential areas and going past

Dow's Lake Dow's Lake in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada is a small man-made lake on the Rideau Canal, situated two kilometres north of Hog's Back Falls in the middle of Ottawa. It is at the south end of Preston Street, just south of Carling Avenue, and just to th ...

and

Carleton University Carleton University is an English-language public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to serve returning Wo ...

. To the north, the road passes

Department of National Defence Headquarters National Defence Headquarters (NDHQ) ( French: ''Quartiers généraux de la Défense nationale'' (''QGDN'')) was created through the integration of Canadian Armed Forces Headquarters (CAF HQ) with the civilian Department of National Defence (DND) ...

, the Ottawa Congress Centre and the

Westin Hotel Westin Hotels & Resorts is an American upscale hotel chain owned by Marriott International. , the Westin Brand has 226 properties with 82,608 rooms in multiple countries in addition to 58 hotels with 15,741 rooms in the pipeline. History Wester ...

before ending at Wellington Street and

. The rear door of the

Government Conference Centre The Senate of Canada Building (french: édifice du Sénat du Canada) is located at 2 Rideau Street in downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and serves as the temporary seat of the Senate of Canada. The building served as Ottawa's central railway stati ...

can be accessed from the street as well, after it passes under the Mackenzie King Bridge. It is named for Lieutenant-Colonel

, who built the Rideau Canal. The winding two-lane road has a speed limit of . For many decades the area east of the canal had held Ottawa's main rail lines connecting to the

Ottawa Train Station Ottawa station (french: Gare d'Ottawa, ), or Ottawa Train Station, is the main inter-city train station in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, operated by Via Rail. It is located east of downtown Ottawa and adjacent to Tremblay O-Train station in the ne ...

near the northern end of the canal. In the mid-1960s the train station was controversially relocated about southeast in an industrial area in the east end of the city, leaving the area on the eastern bank of the canal open for development. The

National Capital Commission The National Capital Commission (NCC; french: Commission de la capitale nationale, CCN) is the Crown corporation responsible for development, urban planning, and conservation in Canada's Capital Region (Ottawa, Ontario and Gatineau, Quebec), i ...

thus decided to create a scenic parkway. The Queen Elizabeth Driveway, another scenic Canadian parkway, already served the same purpose on the other side of the canal. Like the adjacent Queen Elizabeth Driveway on the other side of the canal,

pedestrian A pedestrian is a person traveling on foot, whether walking or running. In modern times, the term usually refers to someone walking on a road or pavement, but this was not the case historically. The meaning of pedestrian is displayed with ...

s and

bicycle A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-powered assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A is called a cyclist, or bicyclist. B ...

s are a common sight on the paths running alongside Colonel By. Every Sunday, during the summer months, Colonel By is closed to motor vehicle traffic so that bicycles and pedestrians can have the road to themselves. {{Ottawa Roads Roads in Ottawa Bike paths in Ontario Parkways in Ontario National Capital Commission