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This page contains historical photos of Ontario's King's Highway 8 dating from 1920 to 1959. All photographs displayed on
this page were taken by the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, unless specifically noted otherwise. Historical photographs are arranged in approximate chronological
order. Click on any thumbnail to see a larger image!
Please note that all photographs displayed on this
website are protected by copyright. These photographs must not be reproduced, published,
electronically stored or copied, distributed, or posted onto other websites without
my written permission. If you want to use photos from this website, please
email me first for permission. Thank-you!
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Page 1: Historical King's Highway 8 Photographs (1920-1959)
Above - Circa 1925 postcard view of the Hwy 8 and Hwy 8A junction in St. David's. See an
Enlarged Photo Here. (Photo Courtesy of F.H Leslie Ltd.) 
Above - Bituminous penetration pavement on the Hamilton-Queenston Highway (Hwy 8) showing surface treatment applied in 1927. The mixture applied was 1/5th
gallon "Heavy Cutback" asphalt and 15 pounds of stone chips and coarse sand applied per square yard. Note the old Hamilton, Grimsby & Beamsville Electric Railway
at left, which was abandoned in the early 1930s. See an Enlarged Photo Here. Photo taken in
1927. (Photo courtesy of Ontario Ministry of Transportation - © King's Printer for Ontario, 1927) 
Above - View of Hwy 8 facing east towards the 20 Mile Creek Bridge at Jordan. See an
Enlarged Photo Here. Photo taken on October 8, 1935. (Photo © Archives of Ontario - Series RG-14-162-5-119, Photo #8) 
Above - New bridge over 20 Mile Creek at Jordan in 1937. This new concrete structure was built in 1936 to replace the narrow steel pony truss bridge seen in
the previous 1935 photo. See an Enlarged Photo Here. (Photo courtesy of Ontario Ministry of Transportation - © King's Printer for Ontario, 1937) 
Above - Circa 1937 photo of the distance sign at the exit from the old Honeymoon Bridge in Niagara Falls. This sign directed traffic to Hwy 8 and Hwy 20, which
were the two main highway routes leaving Niagara Falls at that time. The completion of the Queen Elizabeth Way to Niagara Falls in 1940 greatly improved highway
access to the rest of Ontario from the Niagara Peninsula. The distance sign seen here was removed after the ill-fated Honeymoon Bridge collapsed in 1938, when a
winter ice jam on the Niagara River undermined the structure. The replacement Rainbow Bridge was completed a short distance downstream in 1941. Note the
newly-completed Oakes Garden Theatre in the background, which still stands today at the corner of River Road and Clifton Hill. See an
Enlarged Photo Here. Photo taken circa 1937. (Photo from Cameron Bevers' historical photograph collection - Original photographer unknown) 
Above - Queen Elizabeth Way at the Hwy 8 Junction at Homer, looking west from the Homer Lift Bridge in 1939. This photo shows the graded Queen Elizabeth Way
roadways, facing west from the old Homer lift bridge. The Cushman Road Underpass can be seen on the Queen Elizabeth Way in the background. This portion of the Queen
Elizabeth Way was bypassed in 1963, when the Garden City Skyway opened to traffic just a short distance to the north. In this photo, detour signs are in place at the
junction to encourage through traffic to utilize Hwy 8 instead of the Queen Elizabeth Way, which was not fully completed at the time. Back in the 1930s and 1940s,
little attempt was made to barricade roads which were under construction. Consequently, motorists would frequently drive upon newly-built roads months (and in some
cases, years) before the highway was officially "opened" to traffic. Today, engineers with the Ministry of Transportation conduct a very thorough inspection of a
newly-built highway before allowing any traffic to use it. See an Enlarged Photo Here. Photo taken
on November 29, 1939. (Photo © Archives of Ontario - Series RG-14-162-2-27, Box B983, Photo #2519S) 
Above - Circa 1940 photo of a porcelain enamel King's Highway 8 route marker. See an
Enlarged Photo Here. (Photo from Cameron Bevers' historical photograph collection - Original photographer unknown) 
Above - Aerial view of the Rainbow Bridge and River Road (Hwy 8) in Niagara Falls. See an
Enlarged Photo Here. Photo taken in 1944. (Photo courtesy of Ontario Ministry of Transportation - © King's Printer for Ontario, 1944) 
Above - Aerial view of the Homer Lift Bridge on the Queen Elizabeth Way & Hwy 8 at the Welland Canal near St. Catharines, facing east towards Niagara Falls
in 1944. A portion of the Hwy 8 Cloverleaf at Cushman Road can be seen at right. See an
Enlarged Photo Here. Photo taken in 1944. (Photo © Archives of Ontario - Series RG-14-162-5-166, Box B1038, Photo #972-56) 
Above - Circa 1945 photo of an early diagrammatic guide sign on the Queen Elizabeth Way approaching the Hwy 8 Junction near St. Catharines. Diagrammatic guide
signs were first installed at the Burlington Interchange in the Fall of 1937, but they were later installed at other major junctions along the Queen Elizabeth Way as
well. This particular example used external electric floodlights to illuminate the sign at night, but other diagrammatic signs from that era were fully reflectorized
"button copy" signs. These button copy signs had glass or plastic reflectors embedded along each of the sign's letters and on the lane diagrams. When a vehicle's
headlights illuminated the sign, the sign's message was displayed as a series of bright dots which could be read by the motorist. These reflectorized signs thus did
not require any external illumination. See an Enlarged Photo Here. Photo taken circa 1945. (Photo from Cameron Bevers' historical photograph collection - Original photographer unknown) 
Left - Circa 1948 postcard view of Hwy 8 (Ontario Road) in Downtown Mitchell, facing west from St. Andrew Street towards the Hwy 23 Junction. Note the angled
street parking located in the centre of the highway. Where the pavement width allowed, many Ontario towns permitted this type of angled street parking in the early
days of Ontario's highway system, as it was an easy way to increase the supply of parking spaces in high-demand downtown areas. This practice was generally
discontinued during the 1950s as traffic volumes on highways increased, as it was safer to provide parking spaces in off-street parking lots rather than in the centre
of busy downtown streets. See an Enlarged Photo Here. Photo taken circa 1948. (Photo from Cameron Bevers' historical photograph collection - Original photographer unknown) Right - Circa 1950 view of the western approach to the Hwy 19 South Junction on Hwy 7 & Hwy 8 in Shakespeare, facing east towards Kitchener. Up until the early 1960s, Hwy 7, Hwy 8 & Hwy 19 all shared a concurrent overlapped route between Stratford and Shakespeare. As part of a highway renumbering plan carried out in this area in 1962, the route of Hwy 19 between Shakespeare and Woodstock was renumbered as Hwy 59. The overlapped route of Hwy 19 along Hwy 7 & Hwy 8 between Stratford and Shakespeare was also discontinued in 1962. See an Enlarged Photo Here. Photo taken circa 1950. (Photo from Cameron Bevers' historical photograph collection - Original photographer unknown) 
Above - Circa 1950 photo of motorists standing beside an older Elizabeth Regina "ER" and King's Highway 8 route marker junction assembly on the Queen Elizabeth
Way near St. Catharines. These Elizabeth Regina "ER" route markers were originally used to sign the Queen Elizabeth Way, but the meaning of the Latin "ER"
abbreviation for Queen Elizabeth was lost on all but the most educated. The signs were eventually replaced with a new series of route markers in the mid-1950s, which
more logically abbreviated the highway's name as "QEW". See an Enlarged Photo Here. (Photo from Cameron Bevers' historical photograph collection - Original photographer unknown) 
Above - Huron Street Bridge over the Avon River on Hwy 8 & Hwy 19 in Stratford. See an
Enlarged Photo Here. Photo taken on July 18, 1951. (Photo courtesy of Ontario Ministry of Transportation - © King's Printer for Ontario, 1951) 
Left - Department of Highways of Ontario (DHO) Brantford-Anthony Sand Spreader in operation along Hwy 8 near Winona. See an
Enlarged Photo Here. Photo taken on November 28, 1951. (Photo courtesy of Ontario Ministry of Transportation - © King's Printer for Ontario, 1951) Right - New Brantford-Anthony Sand Spreader parked at the Winona Patrol Yard, DHO District #4 (Hamilton District). The spreader was developed by DHO maintenance staff to carefully control the application rate of sand and salt, depending on the road conditions. See an Enlarged Photo Here. Photo taken on November 28, 1951. (Photo courtesy of Ontario Ministry of Transportation - © King's Printer for Ontario, 1951) 
Above - A scenic section of Hwy 8, 4 miles east of Beamsville in 1952. Note how small the Hwy 8 sign pole is on the right side of the highway. See an
Enlarged Photo Here. Photo taken on May 7, 1952. (Photo courtesy of Ontario Ministry of Transportation - © King's Printer for Ontario, 1952) 
Left - DHO Magnetic Nail Picker in operation along Hwy 8 near Stratford. One of the more curious units in the DHO's maintenance fleet, the Magnetic Nail
Picker collected thousands of pounds of nails and other scrap metal from Ontario's highways each year. The nail picker was especially valued during and right after
World War II, when vehicle tires were in extremely short supply. Motorists who had the misfortune of getting a punctured tire from driving over a piece of scrap
metal could find themselves stranded indefinitely. See an Enlarged Photo Here. Photo taken on July 28, 1952. (Photo courtesy of Ontario Ministry of Transportation - © King's Printer for Ontario, 1952) Right - New Nith River Bridge (Rau Bridge) on a partially-completed diversion of Hwy 7 & Hwy 8 at New Hamburg in 1952. This diversion initially only carried local traffic to a Waterloo County Road (Bleams Road). However, the Rau Bridge was ultimately incorporated into the New Hamburg Bypass, which was completed in its entirety and opened to traffic in 1957. See an Enlarged Photo Here. Photo taken on July 31, 1952. (Photo courtesy of Ontario Ministry of Transportation - © King's Printer for Ontario, 1952) 
Left - Old Thames River Bridge on Hwy 8 & Hwy 23 in Downtown Mitchell in 1952, just prior to the structure's replacement. This very old steel pony truss
structure was built before the province assumed jurisdiction over the Stratford-Goderich Road as a new Provincial Highway (Hwy 8) in 1920. The structure was rather
narrow and was slightly out-of-alignment with Mitchell's main street. Note the pavement markings striped at the eastern end of the bridge to guide motorists through
the offset alignment. A new steel floor was constructed on the bridge as part of an extensive rehabilitation project carried out in 1940, which was done to extend the
service life of the structure. Despite the rehabilitation work, the bridge's peculiar offset alignment and exposed trusses situated immediately adjacent to the
traffic lanes without any curbs continued to pose a traffic hazard. After World War II ended, a decision was made to replace this aging bridge with a new concrete
rigid frame structure on an improved alignment. As Post-War steel shortages began to ease, the bridge's replacement was tendered for construction in the Spring of
1952, under Contract #1952-37. See an Enlarged Photo Here. Photo taken on July 28, 1952. (Photo courtesy of Ontario Ministry of Transportation - © King's Printer for Ontario, 1952) Right - Facing east across the newly-completed Thames River Bridge on Hwy 8 & Hwy 23 in Mitchell, Contract #1952-37. This new structure was nearly finished by the end of 1952, except for the steel handrail panels which were not installed on the bridge until 1953. Structural steel shortages continued to plague bridge construction projects in Ontario up until the mid-1950s. This resulted in some highway bridges being opened to traffic before the steel handrail panels were completed in their entirety, as was the case with the Mitchell Bridge. Temporary fencing and barriers were often used as an interim measure in these situations. This photo was taken in the Fall of 1953, and shows the completed bridge with the new steel handrail panels installed. See an Enlarged Photo Here. Photo taken on October 14, 1953. (Photo courtesy of Ontario Ministry of Transportation - © King's Printer for Ontario, 1953) 
Left - Grading for a new earth cut on Hwy 8, 1/2 mile east of Clinton, Contract #1953-33. See an
Enlarged Photo Here. Photo taken on October 15, 1953. (Photo courtesy of Ontario Ministry of Transportation - © King's Printer for Ontario, 1953) Right - Completed earth cut and vertical profile correction on Hwy 8 east of Clinton prior to paving. See an Enlarged Photo Here. Photo taken on August 19, 1954. (Photo courtesy of Ontario Ministry of Transportation - © King's Printer for Ontario, 1954) 
Above - Circa 1955 postcard view of Hwy 8 & Hwy 19 (Ontario Street) in Downtown Stratford, facing east towards the Hwy 7 Junction (Erie Street). See an
Enlarged Photo Here. (Photo courtesy of Royal Specialty Sales, Toronto) 
Above - Completed hot-mix paving on Hwy 8, 6 miles west of Seaforth, Contract #1955-81. See an
Enlarged Photo Here. Photo taken on October 28, 1955. (Photo courtesy of Ontario Ministry of Transportation - © King's Printer for Ontario, 1955) 
Above - Circa 1957 view of Clifton Hill (Hwy 3A & Hwy 20), facing east at Falls Avenue in Niagara Falls. Note the triple King's Highway route marker sign
assembly for Hwy 20, Hwy 3A & Hwy 8 on the traffic signal pole and the large guide sign marking the route to the Rainbow Bridge. The oversized yellow traffic
signal back plate also bears an interesting but simple message to motorists - "DRIVE SAFELY". See an
Enlarged Photo Here. Photo taken circa 1957. (Photo from Cameron Bevers' historical photograph collection - Original photographer unknown) 
Above - Newly-completed Department of Highways of Ontario Stratford District Office (DHO District #3) in 1957. This building stood at 581 Huron Street in
Stratford for nearly 60 years, before being demolished to make way for a new shopping centre in 2013. See an
Enlarged Photo Here. Photo taken in 1957. (Photo courtesy of Ontario Ministry of Transportation - © King's Printer for Ontario, 1957) 
Above - View of Hwy 8 between Kitchener and Preston in 1957, facing west. This photo shows the divided section of Hwy 8 near Sportsworld Drive prior to the
urbanization of this part of Kitchener. The former site of the Pioneer Sportsworld recreation area is located to the right of the highway while the former site of
Lulu's Roadhouse is located to the left. This divided highway was built in the late 1930s and still exhibits most of its original design characteristics in this 1957
photo. Note the trees planted in the highway's median. The original cross section of this highway was substantially altered during reconstruction of Hwy 8 in the
1960s and 1970s, so the road looks quite different today. See an Enlarged Photo Here. Photograph
taken on August 16, 1957. (Photo © Archives of Ontario - Series RG-14-151-18, Box B1104, Photo #576)
Continue on to King's Highway 8 Historical Photos from 1960 to 1969
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