What expressways used to look like in Toronto

As much as Toronto's expressway system may help to define the city as it exists today, prior to the 1950s not a single controlled access highway could be found running through the city. While the QEW dates back to the early 1930s, it wasn't until widening efforts 20 years later that it would become a true freeway. The same can be said for Highway 2A, a major section of which became the stretch of the 401 that extends east from Scarborough to Oshawa in 1952. Also dating back to the 1950s is the 400, which was then referred to as the Toronto-Barrie Highway.

The 1960s would witness expansion of the expressway system in Toronto, but not to the degree that provincial and city officials planned at the time. The DVP opened in 1960, but a number of other major highways proposed during this period were ultimately killed before completion: the notorious Spadina Expressway (the built section of which is Allen Road), the highway 400 extension to the Gardiner (built to Jane Street) and the Crosstown highway. Of these, the story of the ill-fated Spadina Expressway is surely the best-known. I won't repeat it here, but it's worth taking a look at the last photo in this lost to get a sense for what kind of impact it would have had on the areas in its planned path.

Since the 1960s, new highways have appeared around Toronto — e.g. the 427 (an expansion of highway 27), the 410, and the 407 — but none, of course, that run directly through the urban core. I suspect we've passed the time in which proposals to run freeways through downtown neighbourhoods will be seriously tabled, but one never really knows.

For more detailed information about Toronto expressways and their history, an excellent but manageable source is The Expressways of Toronto (Built and Unbuilt) on Transit Toronto.

PHOTOS

400

400 at 401 in 1952 (via the Ontario Ministry of Transportation)

400 at 401 in 1969 (via the Ontario Ministry of Transportation)

401

401 and Yonge in 1958

401 at McCowan in 1961

401 and Highway 27 in 1961

401 and Allen Road in the 1960s (via Ontario Ministry of Transportation)

401 east of Allen Road in 1967

401 in the 1980s looking toward the 400 from Islington overpass

DVP

DVP near Eglinton Actually an expressway-looking Eglinton Ave East (see comment from Rick McGinnis below)

DVP under construction late 1950s

Gardiner Expressway

Gardiner Expressway, aerial view over Jameson in the 1960s

The Gardiner at Dufferin looking east in 1959 (prior to opening)

Gardiner and CN Tower mid 1970s

QEW

Entrance to the QEW and monument 1940

QEW and Highway 27 in 1958

QEW and bus in the 1960s

QEW near Highway 10 in the 1960s

QEW in Oakville 1967

QEW in Port Credit 1967

W. R. Allen Road / Spadina Expressway

Building what was then expected to be the Spadina Expressway in 1963

Allen Road / Spadina Expressway to Eglinton. Look what was next on the horizon before plans to head further south were stopped (that's Cedervale Park just beyond the depression dug out for the highway)

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Photos from the Toronto Archives unless otherwise indicated