Pan-American Highway
The Pan-American Highway is a network of roads stretching across the American continents and measuring about in total length. Except for a rainforest break of approximately , called the Darién Gap, the roads link almost all of the Pacific coastal countries of the Americas in a connected highway system. According to "Guinness World Records", the Pan-American Highway is the world's longest "motorable road". However, because of the Darién Gap, it is not possible to cross between South America and Central America with conventional highway vehicles. Without an all-terrain vehicle, it is necessary to circumnavigate this terrestrial stretch by sea.
Queen Elizabeth Way
The history of the QEW dates back to 1931, when work began to widen the Middle Road in a similar fashion to the nearby Dundas Highway and Lakeshore Road as a relief project during the Great Depression. Following the 1934 provincial election, Ontario Minister of Highways Thomas McQuesten and his deputy minister Robert Melville Smith changed the design to be similar to the autobahns of Germany, dividing the opposite directions of travel and using grade-separated interchanges at major crossroads. When opened to traffic in 1937, it was the first intercity divided highway in North America 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, more or less taking on its current form by 1975. Since then, various projects have continued to widen the route. In 1997, the provincial government turned over the responsibility for the section of the QEW between Highway 427 and the Humber River to the City of Toronto. This section was subsequently redesignated as part of the Gardiner Expressway.
The Queen Elizabeth Way was named for the wife of King George VI who would later become known as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. It is sometimes referred to as the Queen E.
In 1939, the royal couple toured Canada and the United States in part to bolster support for the United Kingdom in anticipation of war with Nazi Germany, and also to mark George VI's coronation. The highway received its name to commemorate the visit; it was unveiled on June 7 as the King and Queen ceremonially opened the highway at a site near the Henley Bridge in St. Catharines. Originally, the highway featured stylized light standards with the letters ""ER"", the Royal Cypher for "Elizabeth Regina", the Latin equivalent to "Queen Elizabeth." While mostly removed, they remain on three bridges along the highway: in Mississauga over the Credit River, in Oakville over Bronte Creek, and in St. Catharines over Twelve Mile Creek. A short section of Highway 420 in Niagara Falls and its extension, Falls Avenue, had replicas of these light standards installed in 2002.