The Rideau Canal, Canada is also known as the Rideau Waterway. It connects the city of Ottawa in Ontario, Canada on the Ottawa River to the city of Kingston in Ontario on Lake Ontario. The canal was inaugurated in 1832 and is still in use today, with most of its original constructions intact. The canal system uses sections of major rivers, including the Rideau and the Cataraqui, as well as some lakes. The Rideau Canal, Canada is the oldest constantly operated canal system in North America, and in 2007, it was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The construction of the Rideau Canal in Canada was planned shortly after the War of 1812, when there remained an unrelenting threat of attack by the United States on the British colony of Upper Canada. In this period, the British built a number of other canals (Grenville, Chute-à-Blondeau and Carillon), as well as a number of forts (Citadel Hill, La Citadelle, and Fort Henry) to slow down and put off any future American attack of Canadian territory.
While constructing the Rideau Canal in Canada as many as thousands of workers died from malaria, other diseases and accidents during blasting. Quinine to prevent malaria was not provided to the majority of the laborers, and was only provided to skilled workers such as army engineers. Some of the dead stayed unidentified as they had no known relatives in Upper Canada and were buried in unmarked mass graves in locations such as Jones Falls, Brewers Mills and Kingston Mills.