The QEW started out as a much smaller highway called the Middle Road. It was built as a government works project during the Great Depression, connecting Toronto to Hamilton as an alternative between Lake Shore and Dundas, which were getting clogged with traffic. Not long after it was built, it was expanded and extended all the way to Niagara Falls, becoming Queen Elizabeth Way. It was modeled on the autobahns in Germany, the first of its kind in North America, with the longest uninterrupted stretch of streetlamps in the world. The stuttering King George VI was here to officially open it with his wife, Elizabeth, who it was named after. (You might know her better as the Queen Mum, or Helena Bonham Carter in The King's Speech.)
This photo was taken in Etobicoke around the time the highway officially opened. It shows the interchange with what's now Highway 427. Today, this spot is a tangle of concrete ramps in the midst of a big box wasteland just west of Kipling, not far from Sherway Gardens.
Here some more old photos of the highway, mostly found
here and
here.
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| The rural road in the days before the QEW |
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| The royal opening ceremonies in St. Catherines, 1939 |
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| King George VI and Elizabeth on the QEW, 1939 |
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| The entrance to the QEW in Toronto, 1940 |
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| East of Oakville, 1938 |
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| Fruit trees in spring, Grimsby, 1949 |
