Green Island (Rideau River)

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The Old City Hall on Green Island
The Old City Hall on Green Island

Green Island in Ontario, Canada, is an island at the end of the Rideau River, at the Rideau Falls at the confluence with the Ottawa River. It is situated in the neighbourhood of New Edinburgh.

The island is the location of Old City Hall, of the old city of Ottawa, before the amalgamation of the region in 2001. The island also includes several war memorials, including tributes to members of the Commonwealth Air Forces in World War II and to Canadian veterans of the Spanish Civil War.

To the west of the island is the National Research Council, Foreign Affairs Canada and International Trade Canada; to the east is 24 Sussex Drive and the embassy of France. On either side of the falls are facilities for a hydroelectric power plant.

Down the Rideau river are the ruins of a rail bridge that once led to Ottawa's Union Station.

The building of an expensive addition to the city hall (designed by Moshe Safdie), architect of the National Gallery of Canada shortly before the building was decommissioned was a source of controversy in the city. Allegedly, the controversy is commemorated onsite by a sculpture of a man in a rocket ship, which, it is claimed, depicts the banishment of the mayor.

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