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John Cletheroe's
USA and Canada Holiday Hints |
For the European immigrants, the rivers formed the first means of transportation across the USA and Canada, followed by the wagon trails and then the transcontinental railroads.
Nowadays, apart from the airline routes, the Interstate highways of the USA and Canada's Trans-Canada Highway bind each country together.
The Trans-Canada Highway, with its green and white maple leaf highway marker shield, runs all the way from St John's in Newfoundland and Labrador to Vancouver Island in British Columbia, a distance of nearly five thousand miles. Photograph (69KB).
A source (unfortunately I forget where) quotes the date of completion of the Trans-Canada Highway as being 3-Sep-1962. Microsoft's Encarta CD-ROM (1995 Edition) quotes a year of 1962 in its "Canada" article but 1966 in its "Newfoundland" article. Possibly the final section in Newfoundland and Labrador was not opened until after the main part.
The Trans-Canada Highway varies from a two-lane road to a limited access divided highway (motorway). It also varies from fairly boring to highly scenic, with the section through the Canadian Rockies being an obvious highlight.
The Trans-Canada Highway is not a single route:
The following sections trace the route of the Trans-Canada Highway, broadly from east to west.
Highway 1: St John's - Terra Nova National Park - Gander - Deer Lake (near Grosse Morne National Park) - Corner Brook - Channel-Port-aux-Basques - ferry to North Sydney, Nova Scotia.
Highway 104 (on the mainland): Toll bridge from Cape Breton Island - New Glasgow - Truro - Amherst - New Brunswick border.
Highway 106 (on the mainland): New Glasgow - Pictou - ferry to Belle River (or Wood Island?), Prince Edward Island.
Highway 16: Confederation Bridge from Prince Edward Island - Sackville.
Highway 20: Rivière-du-Loup - along the southern bank of the St Lawrence - passing the City of Québec but staying on the southern bank of the St Lawrence - Drummondville - St-Hyacinthe - Montréal.
Highway 40: Montréal - Ontario border (for Ottawa).
Highway 15, then Highway 117: Montréal - Ste.-Agathe-des-Monts - Mont-Laurier - through La Vérendrye Provincial Reserve - Val-d'Or - Rouyn-Noranda - Ontario border.
Highway 7: Ottawa - Carleton Place - Perth - Peterborough - Lindsay - junction with Highway 12.
Highway 12: Junction with Highway 7 - Orillia - junction with Highway 69.
Highway 69: Junction with Highway 12 - Parry Sound - Sudbury.
Highway 11: North Bay - New Liskeard - Kirkland Lake - Iroquois Falls - Kapuskasing - Hearst - Nipigon - Thunder Bay - Ft. Frances - Kenora.
Highway 66: Québec border - Kirkland Lake.
(Highways 11 and 17 run together between Nipigon and the point where the highways diverge west of Thunder Bay.)
Highway 16 (the Yellowhead Highway): Portage la Prairie - Neepawa - Minnedosa - (south of Riding Mountain National Park) - Saskatchewan border.
Highway 16 (the Yellowhead Highway): Manitoba border - Yorkton - Saskatoon - North Battleford - Lloydminster - Alberta border.
Highway 16 (the Yellowhead Highway): Saskatchewan border - Edmonton - Edson - Hinton - Jasper National Park - Jasper - British Columbia border.
The section of the Trans-Canada Highway in Alberta between Brooks and the Highway 21 intersection, and quite possibly beyond in each direction, is a divided highway but not controlled access (in British terms, a dual carriageway but not a motorway). Most of the intersections here are conventional crossroads, with no on and off ramps or even traffic lights. Since traffic on the main highway is travelling at a high speed (the speed limit is 110km per hour - about 70 miles per hour), these intersections are potentially very dangerous, especially with traffic turning left onto the main road.
Highway 16 (the Yellowhead Highway): Alberta border - Mount Robson Provincial Park - McBride - Prince George - Vanderhoof - Burns Lake - Hazelton - Terrace - Prince Rupert.
Historic Trails, Named Roads, etc
Major Canadian National Highways
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Most recently modified 6-Nov-03