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The waters of the St. Lawrence River have long served Canada as a great artery of commerce, but after the coming of the railroad, the river also became a barrier to east-west transportation at the river's two principal Quebec ports. Montreal solved the problem in 1859 with the Victoria Bridge, leaving its downriver commercial rival, the city of Quebec, at a severe disadvantage. Quebec eagerly sought a bridge of its own. There were several proposals for great suspension or cantilever bridges, but nothing came of them until formation of the Quebec Bridge Company in 1887. By 1890 the company had contracted with the Phoenix Bridge Company of Pennyslvania to build a cantilever bridge with a main span of 1800 feet that would have eclipsed Scotland's Firth of Forth bridge as the longest cantilever span in the world. By Summer 1907 the structure was well advanced, with the cantilever arms projected out from both shores of the river, when a disastrous failure of the south arm plunged 76 workmen to their deaths. A Royal Commission attributed the failure to defective design and errors in judgment by the engineers. A year later the Canadian government appointed a board of engineers to try again, chief among them the noted American bridge designer Ralph Modjeski. Work began on the new bridge in 1909 and was nearing completion seven years later when disaster struck again. The 5000-ton center span was being lifted into place when a bearing failed, allowing the span to fall into the river. This time, 13 workers were killed. A year later a new span was successfully lifted into place, and in October 1917 the first train crossed the great bridge. The bridge has stood firmly astride the St. Lawrence ever since, helping to link the Maritime Provinces and eastern Quebec with the rest of Canada. The record its builders set in 1917 still stands, for the Quebec Bridge remains the longest railroad cantilever span ever built (overall length 987 metres, width 29 metres, height 103 metres). The Quebec Bridge was declared a historic monument in 1987, by the Canadian & American Society of Civil Engineers and a National Historic Site on January 24, 1996 by the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Dr. George Alexander Rawlyk, a prominent Canadian religious historian, was born in 1935 in Thorold, Ontario and died on 23 November 1995 in Ottawa, Ontario. He was educated at McMaster University (B.A., 1957), Rhodes Scholar at Oxford (1957), and the University of Rochester (M.A., 1962, and Ph.D., 1966). From 1959-1961, Dr. Rawlyk lectured in History at Mount Allison University, and then was Assistant Professor at Dalhousie University from 1961 to 1966. From 1966 until his death, he was at Queen's University at Kingston (Associate Professor 1966-1969, and Professor after 1969). He was Chairman of the Department of History from 1976 to 1985. Throughout the years, he was Visiting Professor at Michigan State University, the University of Prince Edward Island and McGill University, Acadia University, and the University of New Brunswick. He was also Scholar in Residence at Harvard University, and at Cushwa Centre, Notre Dame University. Dr. Rawlyk held several positions on the Canadian Historical Association. He has also been a Council Member of the Champlain Society and a member of the Editorial Board of Acadiensis. He was also Chairman, Board of Directors, of the McGill-Queen's University Press from 1983-1984, and 1985-1986. He was Chair and President, McGill-Queen's University Press, 1994-1995. He was the author of about thirty books as well as numerous articles in edited works and scholarly journals in Canada and the United States. Dr. Rawlyk's writing included research for the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism and the Task Force on Canadian Unity. He was also heavily involved in the 1993 Angus Reid Poll on Religious life in Canada.

The Rideau 150 Citizen's Committee was established in May 1980 in collaboration with Parks Canada to prepare events in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Rideau Canal. . Patrick Watson and Cameron Graham were national co-chairmen, with regional chairs in the Northern Area (Georges Bédard), Central Area (F.C.L. Wyght) and Southern Area (Neil A. Patterson) of the Rideau Canal. The Central and Southern Areas also had vice-chairpersons for various cities and municipalities along the canal. The Southern Area extended from Narrows to Kingston.

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Michael Rodden was born in Mattawa in 1891. His participation in sport covers more than a half a century, first as a player in hockey, baseball, lacrosse, and football, then as a coach and referee, and finally as a sports editor and columnist. From Mattawa he went to the University of Ottawa where he played football and was the lightweight and welterweight boxing champion. He took part in the Porcupine gold rush late in 1909 and served as a fire ranger and game warden for seven years. He entered Queen's University in 1910 and when he left four years later he had won a record-setting fifteen letters in football and hockey. After university he played hockey in Haileybury in 1915 and with Toronto St. Patricks during 1917-18.His coaching in both football and hockey brought him many honours and as a coach or scout he developed or sent thirty-two players to the National Hockey League. In 1918 Mr. Rodden was appointed assistant sports editor of the Toronto Globe and from 1928 to 1936 was sports editor He joined the Kingston Whig Standard as sports editor in 1944 and retired in 1958. He continued to write his weekly column for several years after retirement. He is the only man is Canada to be named to both the Canadian Hockey Hall of Fame and the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. He died in 1978.

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Following the early period of Russian exploration of North America, the imperial government was initially content to leave further development of Alaska in the hands of private traders or promyshlenniki. Attracted by the fur-bearing animals of the Aleutian Islands, the promyshlenniki did not settle in the new territory but only hunted seasonally. In 1784, however, Grigorii Shelikhov established the first permanent Russian outpost on Kodiak Island at Three Saints Bay. Eager to eliminate rival Russian companies and gain control of the entire North Pacific fur trade, Shelikhov expanded the sphere of Russian influence along the Alaskan coast and petitioned Empress Catherine the Great to grant him a monopoly. Shelikhov did not live to see his plans implemented, but in December 1799 Catherine's successor, Paul I, decided to issue a charter creating the Russian-American Company. Although its board of directors met in St. Petersburg, the company's business was conducted from the capital of Russian America, New Archangel (founded on Sitka Island in 1804). Despite falling revenues and a changing world order in the Pacific, the Russian-American Company provided Alaska and the Aleutians with a commercial and civil administration until 1867.

Under Rev. John Stuart, father of the Anglican Church in Upper Canada, a small wooden edifice was constructed in 1791. In the beginning, seven families made up the congregation of St. George's Church. In 1825 construction was begun on a stone building that, consecrated three years later, replaced the first St. George's Church. The original building served for some time as a school house. In 1900 it was torn down. When the Diocese of Ontario was formed in 1862, St. George's Church became the Cathedral. In 1870 St. George's Hall was added and a dome erected in 1891. On New Year's day, 1899 the interior of the Cathedral was destroyed by fire. The Cathedral was re-constructed in eighteen months.

Professor of Theology, Queen's University, Kingston, ON.