Billings Bridge

In 1823, Braddish Billings built a sawmill on a creek running through his property, near today's Bank Street.

In the late 1800s, the Ottawa Brick and Terra Cotta Co. Ltd. brickyard opened at the foot of the hill, to the east of Sawmill Creek, on 58 acres of land now occupied by the RA Centre.

The business was run by sons Cameron and Hugh Merkley from 1947 until the factory closed in 1958, following expropriation by the Federal Government in 1954.

[5] In the wake of the 1905 Russian Revolution, Lazarus Greenberg,[6] his wife Esther Bencher and their three children left Belarus for Canada.

Before the First World War, they settled in Billings Bridge and opened a general store on the Metcalfe Road near the rail tracks.

The Battle of Billings Bridge is an informal name given to a counter-protest organized by Ottawa residents on February 13, 2022, during the Canada convoy protest.

Led by Sean Burges, a senior instructor at Carleton University, the counter-protesters set up a blockade on Riverside Drive at Bank Street at the corner of Billings Bridge.

When Ottawa Police arrived and asked residents to move aside, the crowd, bolstered by more locals joining in, refused.

After hours of negotiation, the counter-protesters allowed the convoy to retreat on the condition that drivers remove all flags and stickers from their vehicles and surrender their jerry cans.

[8] On the protest's one-year anniversary, a plaque resembling an official City of Ottawa marker was anonymously installed at Billings Bridge to commemorate the event, though it was later removed.

[9] The Canadian Museum of History acquired a replica of the plaque for its collection as a historical artifact from the convoy protests, highlighting the event's impact on Ottawa’s community.