By Luis González
After a year of serving pedestrians, the footbridge over the Rideau Canal, newly designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, finally has a name.
The bridge, which crosses the canal at Somerset Street West and connects Centretown with Sandy Hill, was finally inaugurated as the Corktown Footbridge earlier this month.
The inauguration followed a controversy over naming the bridge.
Mayor Larry O’Brien and Somerset Ward Coun. Diane Holmes, as well as a number of other city councillors, attended the naming ceremony.
“It is finally open,” says Holmes. “We required a name to make the plaque, I also wanted good weather and we needed the right time so the mayor could come.”
During the past few months residents had the opportunity to vote on the name through the Rideau Canal Pedestrian Bridge Naming Committee.
“People needed the chance to make suggestions, it was an important way of short listing to the three finalists,” says Holmes. “That is what democracy is all about, you can’t close down other people of the community.”
Early suggested names included Corktown Footbridge and Nelson Mandela Bridge.
However, the Mandela suggestion was quickly dropped because international names fell outside the city’s mandate.
Corktown, nominated by Ottawa’s Irish community and the Bytown Museum, was finally chosen to honor immigrant Irish workers who arrived in 1827 to build the canal.
Right from the beginning, the favourite candidate seemed to be Corktown, winning with more than 1,000 votes.
“The museum submitted the name from an historical point of view. It helps to commemorate the effort of the Irish workers who built the Rideau Canal,” explains Christina Tessier, director of the museum.
Corktown was an Irish community of workers and their families on the banks of the canal.
“An estimated 1,000 of these labourers died in the process of building the canal, many of whom were swept away or buried in unmarked graves along the canal,” says Jennifer O’Brien, a member of the Irish Society.
It is hoped the Corktown bridge will remind citizens of its historic roots.
“It is a piece of history; we look at this as an opportunity to connect the city to a past that most of citizens were not aware of,” says Tessier.
O’Brien agrees.
“We tend to forget that it also played a significant role in trade and defense; and it played a part in positioning Ottawa as the nation’s capital.”
Holmes says the bridge has already benefited Centretown and Sandy Hill residents.
“People living in Centretown now have access to the transit bus station at the University of Ottawa,” says Holmes. “It’s also a transit link for people coming into downtown, around 1,500 people are crossing the bridge everyday.”
After being nominated along with Fort Henry and the Kingston Fortifications, the Rideau Canal was named a World Heritage Site in late June to commemorate its 175th anniversary.
“It’s a great way for people of the world to look to our city,” says Holmes. “It will certainly attract national and international tourism as well.”