Queen Elizabeth Way
Got something old and blue, got something new and... is weird the fourth one? That stately QEW font is apparently the norm, so says Chris Bessert.

All photos courtesy Doug Kerr but one, and the last two were taken by Geoffrey Hatchard.


The QEW runs from the Peace Bridge (to Buffalo, NY), northwestward around Lake Ontario, curving back to the northeast and putting up with a long Highway 403 multiplex. It then continues along the coast into Toronto as far as Exit 135 for Highway 427. Past there, the QEW was given to the city of Toronto and is now known as the Gardiner Expressway east to the end at Don Valley Parkway. The above photo was taken by Averill Hecht east of Hamilton, eastbound in 1976. Not much has changed, except most of the QEW has six lanes now instead of four, and the old speed limit sign way on the right (which I believe is MAXIMUM 60, as in 60 MPH before the metric switch) has been replaced.


Highway 420 is a short freeway into the heart of Niagara Falls. The first photo is SB on the QEW, the second is WB on 420, and the third is somewhere. The main movement on Highway 420 WB is to the QEW NB, since heading SB brings you to NY and you wouldn't have taken 420 away from Niagara Falls when there are good bridges right there.


How old is a Big Blue Sign? As old as the QEW itself? As old as Queen Elizabeth II? As old as the dear departed Queen Mum, the road's namesake? Elizabeth I??


NB on Highway 406. Notice all freeways are 4-hundred-something (even the QEW is technically 451). It's the sneaky way to avoid having snazzy shield designs for every different type of route.


EB on Highway 403 at two beginnings: that of the QEW/403 multiplex, and that of Highway 407. 407 is the Express Toll Route, a good way to avoid Ontario traffic (Highway 401 in Toronto is the widest highway in North America, at a good 20 lanes, and even that's not enough), but you have to have the right transponder. Ontario is nice about it though - if you're missing the tag or it doesn't register, they'll send a bill later on. Incidentally, Highway 417, Highway 403, and the QEW all come within a couple of miles of each other way east of here in Mississauga (a western suburb of Toronto), just past the eastern QEW/403 split.

Into NY on the Peace Bridge
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