page_title: Ottawa Electric Railway
section_title: Electricity in Ottawa
hierarchical_section_title: Ottawa Electric Railway / History / Electricity in Ottawa
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of Ottawa 1874
context_page_description: Ottawa Electric Railway Company was a streetcar public transit system in the city of Ottawa, Canada, part of the electric railway streetcars that operated between 1891 and 1959. Ottawa once had tracks through downtown on Rideau Street, Sparks Street and others, and extended outside of the downtown core to provide services that helped form communities such as Westboro, Old Ottawa South and The Glebe. Prior to this, starting in 1866, public transportation was provided by Ottawa City Passenger Railway Company, a horse-drawn tram service. The O.E.R. was taken over by the Ottawa Transportation Commission in 1948, which was itself succeeded by OC Transpo in 1973.
context_section_description: Ottawa's first electric lights operated near the Chaudière Falls in 1882, and in 1885, electric lighting came to the city streets under Ottawa Electric Light Company.
  Thomas Ahearn, born in LeBreton Flats, also became an important figure in the early years of electricity in Ottawa.  Ahearn had been a telegraph operator, and in 1892 filed patents for both an "electric oven" and a "system of warming cars by means of electrically heated water".  Ahearn formed a partnership with Warren Y. Soper, and for years the office of Ahearn and Soper was on Sparks Street.  Ahearn merged existing companies (Clemow's) Ottawa Electric Light Company, and Ahearn's company, Chaudière Electric Light and Power Company, with a third company, naming it Ottawa Electric Company.  It became part of Ahearn's Ottawa Light, Heat and Power Company, which eventually was taken over by Ottawa Hydro.
  In 1901, Ottawa Electric Railway Company built a 2,000-foot (610 m) canal just north of the Britannia Boathouse Club to generate Hydroelectric power on the Deschênes Rapids. Although the hydroelectric project was abandoned as unfeasible, the unfinished canal was used in 1951 by Past Commodores Thomas G. Fuller and Reginald G. Bruce with labour provided by volunteer Club members as the basis of the Britannia Yacht Club`s protected harbour. Today, the main and inner harbour provide 250 wet moorings, fuel and pumpout facilities, for both sail and power boats.
caption: First streetcar route, Ottawa map 1874; Route along Sussex, Sparks, Wellington to Chaudiere Falls
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