It's full of holes

digging on Gilmour, June 2016

 I've never seen so many holes, all at the same time, in Ottawa. Not ever. This one is at the east end of Gilmour, in front of #s 27-31, just past Salsibury Place near the Canal. Something to do with utilities I'm guessing. That round, precast thingummy is a good three metres across. Not small, no sirree.

 This slice of the Golden Triangle lies just to the north of what was once called Neville's Point (see Urbsite.) This small settlement sprang up near the mouth of Neville's Creek. Apparently the creek was a slow, seasonal affair but in its time it managed to carve a respectable gully before emptying into the Canal, warranting its own little wooden footbridge (see Lost Ottawa, extreme right end of map.) You can still see a relict depression in the ground where the creek once flowed — it lies in the grassy area between the German Embassy (#1 Waverly) and the Canadian Nurses Association (#50 The Driveway). The depression extends back "upstream" to make a small dip in Robert Street near #26.

  It's fair to guess that exposed the soil in the photo is the sort of stuff Neville's Creek would have been cutting its way through. From here, it looks silty to me, maybe on the sandy side with some clay. According to the "Surficial Geology of Ottawa" map 1506A, Geological Survey of Canada, this spot is covered by Champlain Sea sediments of type "3a" described as...

Clay and silt underlying erosional terraces; upper part of marine deposits removed to variable depths by fluvial erosion so in places clay is uniform blue-grey; unit includes lenses, bars and channel fills of sand and pockets of non-marine silt that was formed during terrace or channel cutting. 

 So yeah, though that rocky-looking layer dipping downward to the right at the far end of the pit has me flummoxed — or is it old, sunken pavement?) I'm also intrigued by the gravelly layer under the sidewalk. What is that — old macadam? Or was the sidewalk poured over a (deep!) gravel bed?

 For a detailed discussion of this part of Centretown, see Urbsite's article on "The Bend in the Deep Cut." Also, Google has archived a fascinating piece from the Ottawa Citizen dating to 1935. It's introduction (rampant capitals not mine) reads...

Story of Seventies Related by Charles Neville. Tells of Deep Gully Which Ran From Elgin to Foot of Waverley. Women Worked in Bare Feet in Brickyards On Canal Bank. Extensive Area Between Elgin and Bank Street Was Veritable[*] Swamp. Recalls Old "Rampike" in Canal.

  Read all about it here!

(*@Kevin "ORLY?")