The recently completed canal-crossing foot bridge that connects Centretown and Sandy Hill needs a name. The suggested names, the merits of which are being debated on city blogs elsewhere, are many and varied. They range from the mundane (“The Somerset Foot Bridge”), to the clever (“By-ped Bridge”), to the meaningless (“The Justin Trudeau Bridge”), to the self-deprecating (“Pont of Order, Talking Pont or, Pont of Insanity” – in honour of “all those years of pointless quibbling” that led up to the bridge’s construction).
The best suggestion, which also has gained the most public support, is “The Corktown Bridge.”
This name is one with deep local and historical meaning. Corktown was, of course, the rowdy Irish shantytown that existed in the 19th century around where the bridge’s eastern foot rests.
The Irish labourers of Corktown, who came to Ottawa to escape the poverty of their homeland, were instrumental in realizing the project that defines the city – the Rideau Canal.
Irish workers, commanded by the slave-driving Colonel John By, endured positively inhumane conditions. Thousands died of malaria, cholera and work accidents. Many of these poor souls, flung far from home and hearth, now lie in unmarked graves in and around the canal.
Naming the new bridge for those who gave so much to the city is both right and fitting. It is also the least we can do. Irish Ottawans have vigorously promoted the name and this passion has brought memories of the canal’s heavy cost back into the public debate.
An appropriate name is one which will help Ottawans learn about and reflect on the past. The Corktown proposal achieves these goals in spades.
–Jeffrey Davis