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Highway 2 (Ontario)
Encyclopedia
King's Highway 2, usually referred to simply as Highway 2 is a provincially maintained highway in Ontario
. Once the primary east–west route across the southern end of the province, Highway 2 became mostly redundant in the 1960s following the completion of Highway 401, which more or less bypassed it. Consequently, most of the 837.4 km (520.3 mi) length of Highway 2 was deemed a local route and removed from the provincial highway system on January 1, 1998, with the exception of a 1 kilometre (0.621372736649807 mi) section east of Gananoque
.
with the Thousand Islands Parkway, once referred to as "Highway 2S" prior to becoming a temporary part of the 401 in 1952, and continues forward. The highway passes through the rural-urban fringe of Gananoque, with several country homes to the east and a car pool parking lot to the west. Approaching Highway 401, the road bends to the right and passes over the superhighway. A small lake is nestled at the northeast corner of the interchange. Highway 2 ends at the westbound 401 offramp (interchange 648), while the roadway continues as County Road 2 along the former provincial route.
Numerous connecting links exist along urban sections of the former route of Highway 2. These sections were downloaded to the municipalities in which they reside before 1998. As such, when the Ministry of Transportation shortened Highway 2 on January 1, 1998, the signs along these connecting routes were not removed. These signs are still posted in places such as Windsor, London, and Toronto. In parts of Toronto, markers direct drivers along Lake Shore Boulevard west of downtown, and Lake Shore Boulevard, Coxwell Avenue (changed from the old route on Woodbine Avenue), and Kingston Road
east of downtown.
Before the deletion of Highway 2, most of which took place on January 1, 1998, it was a continuous road from Highway 3
in Windsor
to the Quebec
border. It now has the following designations:
to Smith's Creek, now Port Hope, was inaugurated on August 21, 1917 as The Provincial Highway. On June 7, 1918, the designation was extended east to the Quebec border.
returned from carving The Governor's Road 20 miles (32.2 km) through the thick forests between Dundas
and the present location of Paris
. John Graves Simcoe
was given the task of defending Upper Canada
(present day Ontario) from America following the revolution
and with opening the virgin territory to settlement. After establishing a "temporary" capital at York, Simcoe ordered an inland route constructed between Cootes Paradise
at the tip of Lake Ontario
and his proposed capital of London
. By the spring of 1794, the road was extended as far as La Tranche, now the Thames River
, in London. In 1795, the path was connected with York. The recently immigrated native American Asa Danforth
was awarded the task, for which he would be compensated $90 per mile.
Beginning on June 5, 1799, the road was extended eastwards. Danforth was hired once more, and tasked with clearing a 10 metres (32.8 ft) road east from York through the bush, with 5 metres (16.4 ft) (preferably in the centre) cut to the ground. It was carved as far as Port Hope by December, and to the Trent River
soon after. Danforth's inspector and acting surveyor general William Chewett declared the road "good" for use in the dead of winter, but "impassible" during the wet summers, when the path turned to a bottomless mud pit. He went on to suggest that rather than setting aside land for government officials which would never be occupied, the land be divided into 200 acres (80.9 ha) lots for settlers who could then be tasked with statute labour to maintain the path.
Danforth agreed, but the province insisted otherwise and only four settlers took up residence along the road; like many other paths of the day, it became a quagmire.
Danforth's road did not always follow the same path as today's Kingston Road. Beginning near Victoria Park Avenue
and Queen Street East, the road can be traced along Clonmore Avenue, Danforth Road, Painted Post Drive, Military Trail and Colonel Danforth Trail. Other sections of the former roadway exist near Port Hope and Cobourg
,
as well as within Grafton
.
Otherwise the two roads more or less overlap. As the route straying through Scarborough avoided many of the settlers who had taken up residence near the lake, Danforth's road was bypassed by 1814 by William Cornell and Levi Annis. The Cornell Road (as it was known for a short time) shortened the journey from Victoria Park to West Hill, but remained mostly impassible like Danforth's route to the north. Finally succumbing to increasing pressures, the government raised funds to straighten the road and extend it to Kingston
. The work was completed by 1817 and the road renamed The Kingston Road.
a 4 mi (6.4 km) stretch west of Brockville,
a 4.5 km (2.8 mi) stretch from Woodstock
eastward,
and a section between Birchmount Road and east of Morningside Avenue in Scarborough Township. When widening in Scarborough reached the Highland Creek
ravine in 1936, east of Morningside, the Department of Highways began construction on a new bridge over the large valley, bypassing the former alignment around West Hill.
From here the highway was constructed on a new alignment to Oshawa, avoiding construction on the congested Highway 2. As grading
and bridge construction neared completion between Highland Creek and Ritson Road in September 1939, World War II
broke out and gradually money was siphoned from highway construction to the war effort.
A portion of the highway in the area of Morrisburg was permanently submerged by the creation of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1958. The highway was rebuilt along a Canadian National Railway
right-of-way in the area to bypass the flooded region. The town of Iroquois was also flooded, but was relocated 1.5 kilometres north rather than abandoned. This event led to the nickname of The Lost Villages
for a number of communities in the area.
On January 1, 1998, most of the former length of Highway 2 was downloaded. Downloading transfers the highway from provincial responsibility to the counties or municipalities that each section lies within, with the route losing its King's Highway designation in the process. Only a short section remains, east of Gananoque.
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
. Once the primary east–west route across the southern end of the province, Highway 2 became mostly redundant in the 1960s following the completion of Highway 401, which more or less bypassed it. Consequently, most of the 837.4 km (520.3 mi) length of Highway 2 was deemed a local route and removed from the provincial highway system on January 1, 1998, with the exception of a 1 kilometre (0.621372736649807 mi) section east of Gananoque
Gananoque, Ontario
Gananoque is a town in Leeds and Grenville County, Ontario, Canada. The town had a population of 5,287 year-round residents in the Canada 2006 Census, as well as summer residents sometimes referred to as "Islanders" because of the Thousand Islands in the St. Lawrence River, Gananoque's most...
.
Route description
Highway 2 is currently a stub of its former self. At just over 1 kilometre (0.621372736649807 mi) in length, it is one of the shortest provincial highways in Ontario. Its primary purpose is to provide a provincial route between westbound Thousand Islands Parkway and eastbound Highway 401. Highway 2 begins unsigned at the eastern town limits of Gananoque, and travels east a short distance before gently curving northward. It interchangesInterchange (road)
In the field of road transport, an interchange is a road junction that typically uses grade separation, and one or more ramps, to permit traffic on at least one highway to pass through the junction without directly crossing any other traffic stream. It differs from a standard intersection, at which...
with the Thousand Islands Parkway, once referred to as "Highway 2S" prior to becoming a temporary part of the 401 in 1952, and continues forward. The highway passes through the rural-urban fringe of Gananoque, with several country homes to the east and a car pool parking lot to the west. Approaching Highway 401, the road bends to the right and passes over the superhighway. A small lake is nestled at the northeast corner of the interchange. Highway 2 ends at the westbound 401 offramp (interchange 648), while the roadway continues as County Road 2 along the former provincial route.
Numerous connecting links exist along urban sections of the former route of Highway 2. These sections were downloaded to the municipalities in which they reside before 1998. As such, when the Ministry of Transportation shortened Highway 2 on January 1, 1998, the signs along these connecting routes were not removed. These signs are still posted in places such as Windsor, London, and Toronto. In parts of Toronto, markers direct drivers along Lake Shore Boulevard west of downtown, and Lake Shore Boulevard, Coxwell Avenue (changed from the old route on Woodbine Avenue), and Kingston Road
Kingston Road
Kingston Road may be:* Kingston Road, Oxford, England* Kingston Road , Canada* Kingston Road, Durham Region, Canada...
east of downtown.
Highway 3 (Ontario)
King's Highway 3, commonly referred to as Highway 3 and historically as the Talbot Trail, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario which travels parallel to the shore of Lake Erie. It has three segments, the first of which runs from the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor...
in Windsor
Windsor, Ontario
Windsor is the southernmost city in Canada and is located in Southwestern Ontario at the western end of the heavily populated Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. It is within Essex County, Ontario, although administratively separated from the county government. Separated by the Detroit River, Windsor...
to the Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
border. It now has the following designations:
- Essex CountyEssex County, OntarioEssex County is a county and census division located in Southwestern Ontario and covers an area at the southernmost tip of Canada. The administrative seat is Essex...
: E.C. Row Expressway, County Road 22 and part of County Road 42 (the rest was Highway 2 before the E.C. Row was built) - Chatham-KentChatham-Kent, OntarioChatham–Kent is a unitary authority in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Mostly rural, its centres of population are Blenheim, Chatham, Dresden, Ridgetown, Tilbury and Wallaceburg. Modern Chatham–Kent was created in 1998 by the merger of Kent County and its municipalities.- History :The former city of...
: Chatham-Kent Road 2 - Middlesex CountyMiddlesex County, OntarioMiddlesex County is a primarily rural county in Southwestern Ontario. Landlocked, the county is bordered by Huron and Perth counties on the north, Oxford County on the east, Elgin County on the south, and Chatham-Kent and Lambton County on the west.The seat is the city of London, although the city...
: Longwoods Road except in LondonLondon, OntarioLondon is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, situated along the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. The city has a population of 352,395, and the metropolitan area has a population of 457,720, according to the 2006 Canadian census; the metro population in 2009 was estimated at 489,274. The city... - Oxford CountyOxford County, OntarioOxford County is a regional municipality and census division of the Canadian province of Ontario, located in the Southern portion of the province. The regional seat is in Woodstock...
: County Road 2 except in WoodstockWoodstock, OntarioWoodstock is a city and the county seat of Oxford County in Southern Ontario, Canada. Woodstock is located 128 km southwest of Toronto, north of Highway 401 along the historic Thames River... - BrantBrant, OntarioThe County of Brant is a single-tier municipality and a census division in the Canadian province of Ontario. Despite its name, it is not a county by the standard definition, as all municipal services are handled by a single level of government. The county has service offices in Burford, Paris...
: Brant Highway 2 except in BrantfordBrantford, OntarioBrantford is a city located on the Grand River in Southern Ontario, Canada. While geographically surrounded by the County of Brant, the city is politically independent... - HamiltonHamilton, OntarioHamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
: Wilson Street, Main StreetMain Street (Hamilton, Ontario)Main Street, is a Lower City arterial road in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. It starts east of Wilson Street in Ancaster at White Chapel Cemetery as a two-way street and switches over to a one-way street at Paradise Road South, in Westdale, where it continues up to the Delta where it once again...
, Paradise Rd., King Street, Dundurn StreetDundurn Street (Hamilton, Ontario)Dundurn Street, is a Lower City arterial road in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. It is a two-way street that starts off at Mountain Face Park, Niagara Escarpment in front of the Bruce Trail as a collector road, right behind Hillcrest Avenue and then turns into a four lane thoroughfare from Aberdeen...
, York BoulevardYork Boulevard (Hamilton, Ontario)York Boulevard is a Lower City arterial road in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Formerly known as Highway 2 and Highway 6,starts off in Burlington, Ontario at Plains Road West as a two-way arterial road that wraps around and over the Hamilton Harbour and enters the city of Hamilton in the West-end past... - Halton Region: Plains Road, King Road, North Shore Boulevard, Lake Shore Road
- Peel Region: Southdown Road, Lakeshore Road
- TorontoTorontoToronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
: Lake Shore Boulevard, Gardiner Expressway, Woodbine Avenue and Kingston RoadKingston Road (Toronto)Kingston Road is the southernmost major road along the eastern portion of Toronto, specifically in the districts of East York and Scarborough. Until 1998, it formed a significant portion of Highway 2... - Durham Region: Kingston Road (AjaxAjax, OntarioAjax is a town in the Durham Region in the Greater Toronto Area.The town is named for the HMS Ajax a Royal Navy cruiser that served in World War II. Ajax is a part of the Greater Toronto Area and the...
and PickeringPickering, OntarioPickering is a city located in Southern Ontario, Canada immediately east of Toronto in Durham Region. It is part of the Greater Toronto Area, the largest metropolitan area in Canada.- Early Period :...
), Dundas Street (WhitbyWhitby, OntarioWhitby is a town in Durham Region. Whitby is located in Southern Ontario east of Toronto on the north shore of Lake Ontario, and is home to the headquarters of Durham Region...
), King Street (OshawaOshawa, OntarioOshawa is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the Lake Ontario shoreline. It lies in Southern Ontario approximately 60 kilometres east of downtown Toronto. It is commonly viewed as the eastern anchor of both the Greater Toronto Area and the Golden Horseshoe. It is now commonly referred to as the most...
), Durham Highway 2 (not to be confused with Durham Road 2 (Simcoe Street) - Northumberland CountyNorthumberland County, OntarioNorthumberland County is situated on the north shore of Lake Ontario, in central Ontario, Canada. It is located east of Durham County , west of Hastings, southeast of Kawartha Lakes and south of Peterborough County. The county seat is Cobourg...
: County Road 2 - Hastings CountyHastings County, OntarioHastings County is located in the province of Ontario, Canada. It is The Cheese Capital of Canada. Geographically, it is located on the border of Eastern Ontario and Central Ontario. The population was 125,915 in 2001 and grew to 130,474 in the 2006 Canada Census...
: County Road 2 - Lennox and Addington CountyLennox and Addington County, OntarioLennox and Addington County, Ontario is a county and census division of the Canadian province of Ontario. The county seat is Greater Napanee. It is located in the subregion of Southern Ontario named Eastern Ontario.It includes the following municipalities:...
: County Road 2 - Frontenac CountyFrontenac County, OntarioFrontenac County, as defined by Statistics Canada, is a census division of the Canadian province of Ontario. It is located in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario. The City of Kingston is included in the census division, but is politically separated from the County of Frontenac. It has a land...
: County Road 2; Kingston Road 2 within KingstonKingston, OntarioKingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in Eastern Ontario where the St. Lawrence River flows out of Lake Ontario. Originally a First Nations settlement called "Katarowki," , growing European exploration in the 17th Century made it an important trading post...
city limits - Leeds and Grenville CountyLeeds and Grenville United Counties, OntarioThe United Counties of Leeds and Grenville are located Ontario, Canada. The population, as of the 2006 census, was 99,206. The United Counties have a land area of . Leeds and Grenville are located in the subregion of Southern Ontario named Eastern Ontario, and front on the St. Lawrence River and...
: County Road 2 - Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry CountyStormont, Dundas and Glengarry United Counties, OntarioThe United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry is an upper tier county and census division in the Canadian province of Ontario. The county seat is Cornwall...
: County Road 2 except in CornwallCornwall, OntarioCornwall is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada and the seat of the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry, Ontario. Cornwall is Ontario's easternmost city, located on the St...
History
Highway 2 was the first roadway assumed under the maintenance of the Department of Highways (today's Ministry of Transportation of Ontario). The 73.5 kilometres (45.7 mi) section from the Rouge RiverRouge River (Ontario)
The Rouge River is a two river system. Little Rouge and Rouge River are in the east and the northeast parts of Toronto and begin in the Oak Ridges Moraine in Richmond Hill and Whitchurch-Stouffville...
to Smith's Creek, now Port Hope, was inaugurated on August 21, 1917 as The Provincial Highway. On June 7, 1918, the designation was extended east to the Quebec border.
Footpaths
The forerunners to Highway 2 are numerous paths constructed during the colonization of Ontario. While some portions may have existed as Indian trails for hundreds of years, the first recorded construction along what would become Highway 2 was in late October 1793, when Captain Smith and 100 Queen's RangersQueen's Rangers
The Queen's Rangers was a military unit who fought on the Loyalist side during the American War of Independence. After the war they moved to Nova Scotia and disbanded, but were reformed again in Upper Canada before disbanding again, in 1802, a decade prior to the War of 1812.-French and Indian...
returned from carving The Governor's Road 20 miles (32.2 km) through the thick forests between Dundas
Dundas, Ontario
Dundas is a formerly independent town and now constituent community in the city of Hamilton in Ontario, Canada. It's nickname is the Valley Town. The population has been stable for decades at about twenty thousand, largely because it has not annexed rural land from the protected Dundas Valley...
and the present location of Paris
Paris, Ontario
Paris, Ontario is a community on the Grand River in Ontario, Canada. The town was established in 1850. In 1999, its town government was amalgamated into that of the County of Brant, Ontario, thus ending about 149 years as a separate incorporated municipality.-History:The town was first settled in...
. John Graves Simcoe
John Graves Simcoe
John Graves Simcoe was a British army officer and the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada from 1791–1796. Then frontier, this was modern-day southern Ontario and the watersheds of Georgian Bay and Lake Superior...
was given the task of defending Upper Canada
Upper Canada
The Province of Upper Canada was a political division in British Canada established in 1791 by the British Empire to govern the central third of the lands in British North America and to accommodate Loyalist refugees from the United States of America after the American Revolution...
(present day Ontario) from America following the revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
and with opening the virgin territory to settlement. After establishing a "temporary" capital at York, Simcoe ordered an inland route constructed between Cootes Paradise
Dundas, Ontario
Dundas is a formerly independent town and now constituent community in the city of Hamilton in Ontario, Canada. It's nickname is the Valley Town. The population has been stable for decades at about twenty thousand, largely because it has not annexed rural land from the protected Dundas Valley...
at the tip of Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south by the American state of New York. Ontario, Canada's most populous province, was named for the lake. In the Wyandot language, ontarío means...
and his proposed capital of London
London, Ontario
London is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, situated along the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. The city has a population of 352,395, and the metropolitan area has a population of 457,720, according to the 2006 Canadian census; the metro population in 2009 was estimated at 489,274. The city...
. By the spring of 1794, the road was extended as far as La Tranche, now the Thames River
Thames River (Ontario)
The Thames River is located in southwestern Ontario, Canada.The Thames flows west through southwestern Ontario, through the cities of Woodstock, London and Chatham to Lighthouse Cove on Lake St. Clair...
, in London. In 1795, the path was connected with York. The recently immigrated native American Asa Danforth
Asa Danforth
Asa Danforth was an early settler and leading citizen of Onondaga County, New York where he was the second white man to settle upon his arrival in 1788. He was a veteran of the American Revolution and a salt maker in Onondaga Hollow.-Biography:Asa Danforth was born on July 6, 1746 in Worcester,...
was awarded the task, for which he would be compensated $90 per mile.
Beginning on June 5, 1799, the road was extended eastwards. Danforth was hired once more, and tasked with clearing a 10 metres (32.8 ft) road east from York through the bush, with 5 metres (16.4 ft) (preferably in the centre) cut to the ground. It was carved as far as Port Hope by December, and to the Trent River
Trent River (Ontario)
The Trent River is a river in southeastern Ontario which flows from Rice Lake to empty into the Bay of Quinte on Lake Ontario. This river is part of the Trent-Severn Waterway which leads to Georgian Bay. The river is 90 km long...
soon after. Danforth's inspector and acting surveyor general William Chewett declared the road "good" for use in the dead of winter, but "impassible" during the wet summers, when the path turned to a bottomless mud pit. He went on to suggest that rather than setting aside land for government officials which would never be occupied, the land be divided into 200 acres (80.9 ha) lots for settlers who could then be tasked with statute labour to maintain the path.
Danforth agreed, but the province insisted otherwise and only four settlers took up residence along the road; like many other paths of the day, it became a quagmire.
Danforth's road did not always follow the same path as today's Kingston Road. Beginning near Victoria Park Avenue
Victoria Park Avenue
Victoria Park Avenue is a major north-south route in eastern Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It marks the border between the Old City of Toronto and Scarborough.-History:Victoria Park Avenue was originally a pioneer road for settlement of Scarborough...
and Queen Street East, the road can be traced along Clonmore Avenue, Danforth Road, Painted Post Drive, Military Trail and Colonel Danforth Trail. Other sections of the former roadway exist near Port Hope and Cobourg
Cobourg, Ontario
Cobourg is a town in the Canadian province of Ontario, located in Southern Ontario 95 km east of Toronto. It is the largest town in Northumberland County. Its nearest neighbour is Port Hope, to the west. It is located along Highway 401 and the former Highway 2...
,
as well as within Grafton
Grafton, Ontario
Grafton is a community in the province of Ontario. It is in Northumberland County, in the township of Alnwick/Haldimand. It is 12 km east of Cobourg, Ontario on the former Highway 2 , with close access to Highway 401. The hamlet is near the geographically significant Oak Ridges Moraine at Rice...
.
Otherwise the two roads more or less overlap. As the route straying through Scarborough avoided many of the settlers who had taken up residence near the lake, Danforth's road was bypassed by 1814 by William Cornell and Levi Annis. The Cornell Road (as it was known for a short time) shortened the journey from Victoria Park to West Hill, but remained mostly impassible like Danforth's route to the north. Finally succumbing to increasing pressures, the government raised funds to straighten the road and extend it to Kingston
Kingston, Ontario
Kingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in Eastern Ontario where the St. Lawrence River flows out of Lake Ontario. Originally a First Nations settlement called "Katarowki," , growing European exploration in the 17th Century made it an important trading post...
. The work was completed by 1817 and the road renamed The Kingston Road.
The Provincial Highway
Beginning in 1935, McQuesten applied the concept of a second roadway to several projects along Highway 2:a 4 mi (6.4 km) stretch west of Brockville,
a 4.5 km (2.8 mi) stretch from Woodstock
Woodstock, Ontario
Woodstock is a city and the county seat of Oxford County in Southern Ontario, Canada. Woodstock is located 128 km southwest of Toronto, north of Highway 401 along the historic Thames River...
eastward,
and a section between Birchmount Road and east of Morningside Avenue in Scarborough Township. When widening in Scarborough reached the Highland Creek
Highland Creek (Toronto)
Highland Creek is a river in the Scarborough district of Toronto, Ontario, emptying into Lake Ontario at the eastern end of the Scarborough Bluffs. It is home to several species of fish including trout, carp, and bass. It is a meandering river which, like most rivers in Toronto , travels through a...
ravine in 1936, east of Morningside, the Department of Highways began construction on a new bridge over the large valley, bypassing the former alignment around West Hill.
From here the highway was constructed on a new alignment to Oshawa, avoiding construction on the congested Highway 2. As grading
Land grading
Grading in civil engineering and construction is the work of ensuring a level base, or one with a specified slope, for a construction work such as a foundation, the base course for a road or a railway, or landscape and garden improvements, or surface drainage...
and bridge construction neared completion between Highland Creek and Ritson Road in September 1939, World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
broke out and gradually money was siphoned from highway construction to the war effort.
A portion of the highway in the area of Morrisburg was permanently submerged by the creation of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1958. The highway was rebuilt along a Canadian National Railway
Canadian National Railway
The Canadian National Railway Company is a Canadian Class I railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. CN's slogan is "North America's Railroad"....
right-of-way in the area to bypass the flooded region. The town of Iroquois was also flooded, but was relocated 1.5 kilometres north rather than abandoned. This event led to the nickname of The Lost Villages
The Lost Villages
The Lost Villages are ten communities in the Canadian province of Ontario, in the former townships of Cornwall and Osnabruck near Cornwall, which were permanently submerged by the creation of the Saint Lawrence Seaway in 1958....
for a number of communities in the area.
On January 1, 1998, most of the former length of Highway 2 was downloaded. Downloading transfers the highway from provincial responsibility to the counties or municipalities that each section lies within, with the route losing its King's Highway designation in the process. Only a short section remains, east of Gananoque.
Major intersections
| Location | km | Destinations | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gananoque Gananoque, Ontario Gananoque is a town in Leeds and Grenville County, Ontario, Canada. The town had a population of 5,287 year-round residents in the Canada 2006 Census, as well as summer residents sometimes referred to as "Islanders" because of the Thousand Islands in the St. Lawrence River, Gananoque's most... |
0.0 | Western terminus is at the gated entrance to Gananoque | |
| Leeds and Grenville | Thousand Islands Parkway Thousand Islands Parkway The Thousand Islands Parkway is a parkway in the Canadian province of Ontario, which extends easterly from an interchange with Highway 401 in Gananoque for approximately to the community of Butternut Bay, in Elizabethtown-Kitley, west of Brockville.... |
||
| 1.1 | Eastern terminus is at the offramp from westbound 401 |