In 1613, Champlain arrived in what is now the Capital and produced the first detailed maps of the region.

Lieutenant-Colonel John By established Ottawa in 1826 near the mouths of the Rideau and Gatineau rivers. It began as a construction base for the Rideau Canal, which by 1832 would link Ottawa and Kingston. By 1827, the settlement named Bytown had sprung up, and in the 1830’s the timber trade to Britain became the focus of economic activity. By the middle of the century, trade in squared timber, large American rail networks were driving the community’s economy. Major entrepreneurs of the period included Thomas McKay, J.R. Booth, and Erskine Bronson, whose names can be seen on streets and buildings in Ottawa today.

In 1855, the community’s name was changed to Ottawa, which is thought to derive from a First Nations tribe of the same name. Two years after, it was selected by Queen Victoria as the permanent capital of the United Province of Canada. Construction of the Parliament Buildings began in 1859 on a plot of land overlooking the Ottawa River, and in 1865, some 500 politicians and civil servants moved from Quebec City to Ottawa. In 1867, the city became the capital of the new Dominion of Canada.

The growth of the federal government gave the city a sense of permanence that could never be guaranteed by the volatile lumber industry. It also brought a well-paid civil service and inspired a building boom, which produced hundreds of homes, government buildings and other areas of development.

The early 1900s marked the end of Ottawa as a lumber town, as the government evolved and grew in size to deal with important issues that faced the growing country. These included the poor state of Canada’s economy in the Depression era, its involvement in World Wars I and II. Equal to the rise of government was the growing municipality’s desire to develop parks and parkways and preserve the natural heritage of the city and region. The National Capital Commission created a 17,600-hectare greenbelt in 1958.

Key developments in the 1960’s were high-rise developments built in the city centre and establishing in 1969, the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton, a means to provide major infrastructure services to the expanding urban area. It was the first regional government created in Ontario.

Ottawa entered the 21st Century as a vibrant city, more than every before.