Ontario Highway 2

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by CrazyC83 (talk | contribs) at 02:18, 11 July 2006 (→‎Current status). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The King's Highway No. 2 was the major east-west provincial highway in Southern Ontario, running from Windsor in the west to the Lancaster in the east and joining together the towns and cities of the western two-thirds of the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor within the Canadian province of Ontario.

History

Highway 2 was the original road joining together the main settlements of southern Ontario, based on earlier trails and footpaths, and it served as the primary wagon and stage coach route before the arrival of the Grand Trunk Railroad. Most of the towns and cities in the corridor are built around the highway and use it as one of their main streets, many with names like Kingston Road, Montreal Road, or Dundas Street.

Before the Highway 2 designation was applied in the 1920s, the road was commonly referred to as the Provincial Road. Many of the original nineteenth century brick inns and taverns along the route still exist, especially in smaller towns and villages, though the buildings have typically passed to other uses.

Bypassing of Highway 2

The construction of Highway 401 during the 1940s, 1950s and '60s along a (mostly) parallel route, bypassed the town and city cores, and made Highway 2 largely redundant except for local travel and tourism, and led to a decline of many businesses built alongside it: in many cases, businesses moved from town and city centres to malls and plazas located closer to Highway 401. Provincial downloading of highways to local municipalities has largely resulted in the elimination of this highway as a provincial entity, and it has now become mostly a series of connected county roads. A short portion still maintained as a provincial highway runs in unison with Highway 49 from Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory border to the former Highway 2 turnoff in the south. There is also a small section still in existence from the eastern limit of the Town of Gananoque to Highway 401. This section is about 200 m (1/8 mile) long.

Current status

Prior to the decommissioning of Highway 2, most of which happened on January 1, 1998, it was a continuous road from Highway 3 in Windsor to Quebec. It now has the following designations:[1]

References

  1. ^ Former Ontario Highways
Preceded by
terminus
 Highway 2
Ontario 		Succeeded by
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ontario_Highway_2&oldid=63154615"