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The Queen Elizabeth Way is a 400-series highway in the Canadian province of Ontario linking Toronto with the Niagara Peninsula and Buffalo, New York. The freeway begins at the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie and travels 139.1 kilometers (86.4 mi) around the western shore of Lake Ontario, ending at Highway 427, where the roadway continues as the Gardiner Expressway into downtown Toronto. The freeway's history dates back to 1931, when work began to widen the Middle Road as a relief project during the Great Depression, to bring it up to the quality of the nearby Dundas Highway and Lakeshore Road. In 1934, the design was modified to resemble German autobahns. It was the first intercity divided highway in North America in 1937 and featured the longest stretch of consistent illumination in the world. While not a true freeway at the time, it was gradually upgraded, widened and modernized beginning in the 1950s, taking on more or less its current form by 1975. Since then, various projects have continued to widen the route. (Full article...)