Colonel John By supervised construction of the Rideau Canal which led to Ottawa
The town of Bytown - so named after its founder LtCol. John By (1779 - 1836) - was founded in 1826 as an administrative site for the construction of the Rideau Canal linking the major towns of Kingston and Montréal. The town became a city and was renamed Ottawa in 1855, becoming successively the capital of the Province of Canada (1857) and of the Dominion (1867).