Footbridge honours Irish Rideau Canal diggers

Ottawa's new Rideau Canal foot-crossing will be named the Corktown Bridge for the Irish workers who fell ill and died by the hundreds as they dug out the waterway in the early 1800s.

"We not only built it, but we died building it, and that's a tremendous contribution," said Peter Rock, one of many who crammed a public meeting Tuesday night to support that name over two other finalists— Somerset and Charlotte Whitton.

"But in fairness, for the city to respect that and record that name in history, we should be very thankful and proud," Rock added.

In the end, the name won the public vote at the meeting by a landslide, and will now go to city council for final approval.

Bridge is near former Corktown site

Residents began cycling and walkingacrossthe new bridge between Somerset Street West to the University of Ottawa last fall.

It is believed to be near the former site of Corktown, a rough settlement of huts that once housed about 6,000 Irish navvies and their families, including many from Ireland's County Cork.

The workers helped pick and shovel out the Rideau Canal between 1826 and 1832. In the process, half fell ill— many with malaria— and about 1,000 died. Their settlement was dismantled after they completed the canal.

Their descendants have been lobbying for months in favour of naming the bridge in their honour.

'I enjoy the irony of having people walk all over Charlotte Whitton footbridge because there was no one who could walk all over Charlotte Whitton.' —Gord McDougall

So many people turned out Tuesday that the meeting had to be moved to a bigger room.

Only one person, Gord McDougall, spoke in favour of naming the bridge in favour of former Ottawa mayor Charlotte Whitton.

"I enjoy the irony of having people walk all over Charlotte Whitton footbridge," McDougall told the crowd. "Because there was no one who could walk all over Charlotte Whitton."

Whitton served separate terms as mayor in the 1950s and 1960s.