History
A former Highway 55 designation connected Highway 6 and the QEW with Highway 53, passing through the Mountain district of Hamilton; this route was decommissioned in 1961. The more recent designation was applied in late 1970, following the establishment of Niagara Region.
During the initial settlement period of the Niagara area, following the American Revolutionary War, new wagon routes were built over native footpaths. Grimsby and Newark (now Niagara-on-the-Lake) quickly became established settlements, but travel was cumbersome between them. Pioneers were forced to travel south along the Niagara Road to Queenston, where they turned west and followed the Iroquois Road. To remedy the situation, locals gathered in 1798 and constructed the Black Swamp Road to connect Newark with the Iroquois Road near its crossing of Ten Mile Creek (now the location of the Welland Canal). The route, often subject to flooding from the waterlogged soil which it travelled over, was gradually improved, especially during the 1830s. During the latter half of the 1800s, the road was macadamized, and gradually came to be known as the Niagara Stone Road as the surrounding swampland was drained and farmed.
The original incarnation of Highway 55 travelled through Hamilton. It was established in 1937, following Upper Gage Avenue north from Rymal Road (itself designated Highway 53 that same year) to Crockett Avenue and the Sherman Access. It turned west and followed the access down the Niagara Escarpment, ending at Highway 6 (John Street). The route of this highway changed several times through the late-1950s as the Burlington Skyway was constructed. By 1959, a route down the new Kenilworth Access, north along Kenilworth Avenue and along what is now Burlington Street to the QEW; both routes existed simultaneously between 1957 and 1958. By 1961, this route had been decommissioned.
The recent incarnation of Highway 55 was designated on November 5, 1970, during the same year that the Regional Municipality of Niagara was formed. The route followed the entire length of the Niagara Stone Road from Homer to Niagara-on-the-Lake and remained unchanged over its 27 years of existence. Highway 55 was transferred to the Regional Municipality of Niagara on April 1, 1997, as part of the first round of mass downloading. The route is now known as Niagara Regional Road 55.
Read more about this topic: Ontario Highway 55
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