A Capital Plan

This short documentary features a portrait of Ottawa in the mid-20th century, as the nascent Canadian capital grew with force but without direction. Street congestion, air pollution, and rail traffic were all the negative results of a city that had grown without being properly planned. French architect and urban designer Jacques Gréber stepped in to create a far-sighted plan for the future development of Ottawa. With tracks moved, factories relocated, and neighbourhoods redesigned as separate communities, Ottawa became the capital city of true beauty and dignity we know today.
Directed by Bernard Devlin - 1949 | 11 min
Watch more free films on NFB.ca → bit.ly/YThpNFB
Subscribe to our newsletter → bit.ly/NFBnewsletter
Follow us on Facebook → bit.ly/ytfbNFB
Follow us on Instagram → bit.ly/2FdmRol
Follow us on Twitter → bit.ly/yttwNFB
Download our free iOS Apps → apple.co/2dbva4h
Download our free Android Apps → bit.ly/2dbvHmO

[@PatrickRKay]

Removing the train station out of downtown was the worse plan ever

[@NeilFraser]

Gut-wrenching to see all the things we threw away. The downtown train station. Street cars. Swimming at Hogs Back Falls.

[@KiviShapiro]

The downtown train station was grimy and contributed to traffic congestion. Swimming at Hogs Back Falls contributed to several deaths and even more injuries. I'm with you on the street cars though.

[@GrapeJamCreations]

No sympathy for an ignorant population

[@haydenparkhurst7561]

It is cool to see old films like this. Nothing like it.

[@lovehandr]

70 years later, the Greber Plan had mixed results. Perhaps the industrial railways should have been removed to the periphery but Union Station would have tremendous value had it been retained. The removal of industry from the centre of the city was simply the loss of industry entirely.

[@thetransitwayhistorian]

Union station is still there, you can get a free tour

[@traceye.6428]

@@thetransitwayhistorianI think they mean, if union station had been retained as an actual working train station.

[@thetransitwayhistorian]

@traceye.6428 I are this now thank you

[@fuferito]

Wow! Film from mcmxlix (1949).

[@projectmalus]

A Canada Carries On presentation, the beaver at work.

[@gogogo39]

Lorne Greene is putting on a semi-British accent, a popular (and artificial) way of speaking in films at that time.

[@JIMIIXTLAN]

Strathcona Park 9:50 I swam in that pool

[@petelosuaniu]

The roads-first plan of the 1950s

[@Djbandit23]

Imagine landing here as a refugee on a boat and then living by parliament hill 20 years later

[@kaius3351]

【2:38】Hogs Back Falls ?? I've never heard this place before near Ottawa, Canada. 😲 🌷☺🌷It's interesting place. 👍

[@scotti.6433]

Vincent Massey Park, Mooney's Bay, dammed wild rapids.

[@kaius3351]

@@scotti.6433 : Thanks for your information ! 💐

[@chadparsons50]

Not as accessible today. Today people are more risk averse or soft.

[@Thebossman3369]

Good ol’ Lorne.

[@chadparsons50]

Maybe if politicians could see more industry from their perch they'd know that the value of money doesn't come from paper or digital.

[@FriedRiceINC]

Ottawa, sadly, has ruined a lot of the potential it had in this video. Moving the train station out of downtown, ripping out the streetcars, and carving up the city with highways and stroads has been a disaster. It's known as "Autowa" now. I'd give anything to live in a city designed around people. Such a shame that Ottawa missed that opportunity.

[@nordique59]

When adults ran the country and people were normal. Long gone!

[@ThS_0]

I sure do look forward to when people elect a boy who earned a full government pension off of our tax dollars at 31. Who’s only platform to show “I’m not the other guy”. Told Canadians to invest in bitcoin before it crashed. In the pocket of businesses who would happily eliminate unions and have all of us for penny’s on the dollar. Very sound politics and so very adult and normal. Love thy neighbour* and do no harm** *unless they’re weird or icky or make me uncomfortable with their ideas or enjoyment of public healthcare and education **only to those deemed normal by “someone else” never mind that that someone could be anyone. Don’t think too hard about how your ideas of justice could be used against you, no. Only the “undesirables” will be harmed. “‘First they came for the socialists’ and then no one else because I stopped paying attention” - that’s how the quote goes right?