Three years ago, Alex Van Dieren was paddleboarding next to the abandoned paint factory on the banks of the Ottawa River when the idea came to him: a zipline connecting Ottawa and Gatineau.

“I don’t even know why, I’ll be honest with you,” the Interzip Rogers zipline mastermind and co-president of marketing company Orkestra laughs. “I said ‘wow, maybe it’s right here!’”

And, sure enough, three years later under billowing grey skies, there it is: 365 metres of cable, 36 metres high, connecting two provinces. The world’s first interprovincial zipline — a physical manifestation of the link between Ontario and Quebec, according to Jeff Westeinde, president of the Zibi development, the “city within the city” that the zipline is part of.

“It’s part of the bridge that unites Ontario and Quebec,” he says.

And what a way to travel between provinces, swinging across the river at up to 50 kilometres per hour with a killer 360 view of Parliament, the Chaudière Falls and a host of abandoned factory buildings to peer through the window of, like you’re looking back on a chunk of history. It sure beats biking.

“We like to call it the ‘funnest crossing’ of the Ottawa River,” grins President and CEO of Ottawa Tourism — and Royal Canadian Geographical Society Fellow — Michael Crockatt.

It’s a six-minute walk across the Chaudière bridge from the Gatineau side of the river, carrying your harness like a backpack over your shoulders, bright orange helmet in hand.  

At the base of the launch tower, before climbing up 140 stairs, the thrillseeker is greeted with Bimitigweyaa: the river flows along. It’s a beautiful piece of artwork by Anishinaabe artist Emily Kewageshig, taking inspiration from the the point where three strands of the Ottawa River meet, where the bridge links Ontario and Quebec. Bimitigweyaa is an acknowledgment of the Algonquin Aninishinaabe land that the zipline is on, and a reminder of the beauty of co-existing with nature.