King's Highway2, commonly referred to as Highway2, is the lowest-numbered provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario, and was originally part of a series of identically numbered highways which started in Windsor, stretched through Quebec and New Brunswick, and ended in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Prior to the 1990s, Highway2 travelled through many of the major cities in Southern Ontario, including Windsor, Chatham, London, Brantford, Hamilton, Burlington, Mississauga, Toronto, Oshawa, Belleville, Kingston and Cornwall, and many other smaller towns and communities.
Once the primary east–west route across the southern portion of Ontario, most of Highway2 was bypassed by Highway 401, which was completed in 1968. The August 1997 completion of Highway 403 bypassed one final section through Brantford. Virtually, all of the length of Highway2 was deemed a local route and removed from the provincial highway system by January1, 1998, with the exception of a section east of Gananoque. The entire route remains driveable, but as County Road2 or County Highway2 in most regions.
Portions of what became Highway2 served as early settlement trails, post roads and stagecoach routes. While the arrival of the railroad in the mid-19th century diminished the importance of the route, the advent of the bicycle and later the automobile renewed interest in roadbuilding. A segment of Highway2 between Pickering and Port Hope was the first section of roadway assumed by the newly-formed Department of Public Highways (DPHO) on August21, 1917. By the end of 1920, the department had taken over roads connecting Windsor with the Quebec boundary at Rivière-Beaudette, which it would number as Provincial Highway2 in the summer of 1925. In 1930, the DPHO was renamed the Department of Highways (DHO), and provincial highways became King's Highways. By this time, it was one of the dominant transportation arteries across southern Ontario and was long.
The section of Highway2 between Hamilton and Toronto along Lakeshore Road became the first paved intercity road in Ontario in 1914. Beginning in the mid-1930s, the DHO began reconstructing several portions of the highway into the new German-inspired "dual highway", including east from Scarborough along Kingston Road. This would be the progenitor to Highway401, which was built in a patchwork fashion across Southern Ontario throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, often as bypass of and parallel to Highway2 (except between Woodstock and Toronto). Conversely, the importance of Highway2 for long-distance travel was all but eliminated, and coupled with the increasing suburbanization of the Greater Toronto Area, it became simply a series of urban arterials street between Hamilton and Oshawa.
Having been replaced in importance by the parallel freeways of Highway401, the Queen Elizabeth Way, and finally Highway403, the province gradually transferred sections of the route back to the municipal, county and regional governments that it passed through, a process known as downloading. In 1997 and 1998, the province downloaded of Highway2 and rescinded dozens of Connecting Link agreements, reducing the route to its current length.
Route description Since 1998, Highway2 has remained in the provincial highway system solely as a connection between westbound Thousand Islands Parkway and eastbound Highway401. Highway2 begins at the eastern town limits of Gananoque, and travels east a short distance before gently curving northward. It meets an interchange with the Thousand Islands Parkway—once referred to as Highway2S, prior to becoming a temporary part of Highway401 in 1952—and ends at the westbound Highway401 offramp (Exit648). The roadway continues as Leeds and Grenville County Road 2 both east and west of the remaining highway segment.
Before 1997 Before being mostly-decommissioned as a provincial highway in the mid-1990s, Highway2 was a continuous route from Highway 3 in Windsor to the Quebec border. Prior to the arrival of Highway401 in the 1950s and early 1960s, Highway2 was the primary east–west route across the southern portion of Ontario. At one time it connected with Quebec Route 2, which was renumbered in 1966 as multiple highways, and onwards to New Brunswick Route 2 and Nova Scotia Trunk 2 to end in Halifax. New Brunswick reassigned Route2 to a new freeway running between Fredericton and Moncton in 2007, while Nova Scotia kept its portion of Highway2 intact, numbering its bypass as Highway 102 and Highway 104.
In 1972, the Ontario and Quebec governments designated Highway/Route2 from Windsor to Rivière-du-Loup as the Heritage Highway (Route des Pionniers), a tourist route which continued eastward to the Gaspé Peninsula on what is now Quebec Route 132. This tourist route included various side trips, such as highways to Ottawa and Niagara Falls. While this signage is maintained in some counties, others have promoted local tours, including the Apple Route between Trenton and Brighton, the Arts Route in Hastings County, and the Chemin du Roy (The King's Way, now Route 138) between Montreal and Quebec City.
Windsor–Mississauga Within Ontario and prior to 1997, Highway2 began in Windsor at the interchange between the E. C. Row Expressway and Highway3 (Huron Church Road), where it also met the northern terminus of Highway 18. It followed the expressway east through Windsor, with the divided highway transitioning to an urban arterial road near Lesperance Road. It travelled nearby the south shoreline of Lake St. Clair as it bisected Emeryville and Belle River before curving south briefly. It then turned east and travelled through a rural setting to Tilbury, where it met Highway401 at two interchanges (Exit56 and 63). Crossing from Essex County to Kent County, the highway curved northeast and passed through Chatham—where it intersected Highway 40—Louisville and Thamesville—where it intersected Highway 21—before entering Middlesex County near Bothwell—where it met Highway 79.
Between Chatham and Delaware, Highway2 travelled roughly parallel to and north of the Thames River. It passed through the communities of Wardsville, Strathburn—intersecting Highway 76 and Highway 80—and Melbourne before encountering an interchange with Highway 402 and crossing the Thames River. Within Delaware, the highway intersected Highway 81 and turned east. At Lambeth it met Highway 4 and the two highways travelled concurrent northeast into London. In downtown London, Highway2 and Highway4 parted at the intersection of York Street and Richmond Street, with Highway2 continuing east along the former. It intersected the northern end of Highway100, now known as the Veterans Memorial Parkway. While the route was south of the Thames River between Delaware and London, it continued east along Dundas Street between the two branches of the river between London and Woodstock, intersecting Highway 19 between the two in the community of Thamesford.
At Woodstock, Highway2 intersected Highway 59 and met Highway401 at an interchange near the split with Highway403. It then continued east, becoming parallel with the latter towards Hamilton. It intersected with Highway 53 at Eastwood and passed through the communities of Creditville, Gobles and Falkland before entering Paris. Within Paris, the highway intersected Highway 24A and met the western terminus of Highway 5, with which it remained within through to Toronto. Highway2 branched southeast through Brantford, where it intersected Highway 24 and became concurrent with Highway53 before meeting the end of Highway403 at Cainsville; Highway 54 branched south from there.
Before 1997, Highway403 was discontinuous between Cainsville and Ancaster, intersecting and merging into Highway2 at both locations. The combined Highway2/53 travelled east through Alberton, before splitting at Duff's Corners. Highway2 split to the northeast, and Highway403 resumed at what is now Exit58. Highway2 then travelled through Ancaster, became concurrent with Highway 8 and entered into Hamilton. Following a series of streets, the routes split, and Highway2 travelled north, now concurrent with Highway 6. The two routes split northeast of Burlington Bay, with Highway2 turning northeast into Burlington, encountering an interchange with the Queen Elizabeth Way at North Shore Boulevard. North Shore becomes Lakeshore Road, which the highway followed through Oakville and Mississauga along the shore of Lake Ontario towards Toronto.
Toronto–Quebec
At the Etobicoke Creek, Highway2 entered Etobicoke, one of the six municipalities in Metropolitan Toronto that amalgamated to form the present City of Toronto in 1998. At that point Lakeshore Road also transitioned to Lake Shore Boulevard. It intersected the southern end of Highway 27 and travelled through the community of New Toronto, where numerous motels flourished during the golden age of the automobile which have since given way to condominium development. Approaching the west bank of the Humber River which was the eastern terminus of the Queen Elizabeth Way until 1998, the Highway2 route merged onto the Gardiner Expressway via an on-ramp from Lake Shore Boulevard. Highway2 proceeded to follow the Gardiner around Humber Bay and then through Downtown Toronto on the Gardiner's elevated section. Beyond the Don Valley Parkway interchange, the Gardiner descended to ground level and ended, so Highway2 rejoined Lakeshore Boulevard near Leslie Street. Highway2 continued east, splitting into two routes; one continuing along Lake Shore until it curved north as it transitioned into Woodbine Avenue and the second via Coxwell Avenue and a short stretch of Queen Street to then follow Kingston Road. The two routes then rejoined at Woodbine and Kingston, following the latter northeast into Scarborough.Prior to the construction of the Gardiner and Lakeshore Boulevard, the original alignment of Highway 2 through Downtown Toronto split into three separate routes to disperse traffic through the core. The northernmost route ran along Queen Street until Kingston Road. Another route split from Queen from its western terminus at Roncesvalles Avenue and ran along the entire length of King Street until it rejoined Queen. The southernmost route consisted of streets which are now partially or wholly absorbed into Lake Shore: Fleet, Cherry, and Keating Streets; as well as short sections of Leslie Street and Eastern Avenue until meeting with the Queen Street route at Kingston Road. All three routes rejoined at and followed Kingston Road along the newest pre-1998 alignment., although after the construction of Lake Shore, the aforementioned later branches along Coxwell and Woodbine Avenues were created.
After crossing the Highland Creek valley, Highway2 and Kingston Road followed an off-ramp at the Highland Creek Overpass since the main road defaulted to Highway 2A, travelling parallel to and north of Highway 2A (the latter route being a short freeway connecting directly Highway401). Highway2 continued along Kingston Road as it passed under Highway401 and then crossed the Rouge River into Pickering and Durham Region, initially alongside Highway401 before departing farther north. It bisected Pickering Village and passed through Ajax. Entering Whitby—where it intersected Highway 12 at Brock Street—Kingston Road became Dundas Street, while in Oshawa it became King Street. Highway2 then split into a one-way pairing within the latter, with westbound traffic following the adjacent Bond Street. It continued eastward through Courtice, Bowmanville and Newcastle as it drifted closer to Highway401 and Lake Ontario; an interchange with Highway 35/115 was encountered immediately west of Newcastle.