Gatineau, officially Ville de Gatineau, is a city in western Quebec, Canada. It is the fourth largest city in the province. Located on the northern banks of the Ottawa River, immediately across from Ottawa, together they form Canada's National Capital Region. As of 2011 Gatineau had a population of 265,349, and a metropolitan population of 314,501. The Ottawa–Gatineau census metropolitan area had a population of 1,236,324.Gatineau is coextensive with a territory equivalent to a regional county municipality (TE) and census division (CD) of the same name, whose geographical code is 81. It is the seat of the judicial district of Hull.HistoryThe current city of Gatineau is centred on an area called Hull, the oldest non-native settlement in the National Capital Region. It was founded on the north shore of the Ottawa River in 1800 by Philemon Wright at the portage around the Chaudière Falls just upstream (or west) from where the Gatineau and Rideau Rivers flow into the Ottawa. Wright brought his family, five other families and twenty-five labourers and a plan to establish an agriculturally based community to what was then a mosquito-infested wilderness. But soon after, Wright and his family took advantage of the large lumber stands and became involved in the timber trade. The original settlement was called Wrightstown, later it became Hull and in 2002, after amalgamation, the City of Gatineau.