Green Island (Rideau River)

The Old City Hall on Green Island

Green Island in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, is an island at the junction of the Rideau River, just off Sussex Drive in Ottawa 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, and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade; 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.

A sculpture of Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae by Ruth Abernethy was erected in 2015. Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae is shown, with his dress as an Artillery officer and his medical bag nearby, as he writes. The statue shows the destruction of the battlefield and, at his feet, the poppies which are a symbol of Remembrance of World War I and all armed conflict since. [1]

Coordinates: 45°26′24″N 75°41′41″W / 45.439922°N 75.69476°W

  1. "John McCrae statues to be unveiled a century after In Flanders Fields: Bronzes created for Ottawa and Guelph, Ont., hometown of the doctor, artist and poet << CBC". Retrieved 2015-04-30.