Thousand Islands Parkway

Route information

Maintained by the St. Lawrence Parks Commission

Length:

39.1 km (24.3 mi)

History:

Opened 1947 as Highway 2S
Renumbered Highway 401 in 1952
Renumbered Highway 2S in 1967/68
Decommissioned September 8, 1970

Major junctions

From:

Highway 401 west in Gananoque

Highway 137 to Thousand Islands Bridge to the United States

To:

Highway 401 east near Butternut Bay

Highway system

←

→

The Thousand Islands Parkway or TIP is a parkway in the Canadian province of Ontario, which extends easterly from an interchange with Highway 401 in Gananoque for approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) to the community of Butternut Bay, in Elizabethtown-Kitley, west of Brockville.

The parkway follows the north shore of the St. Lawrence River, and was formerly designated Highway 2S (for Scenic). It was constructed as a primary freeway segment in the Toronto-Montréal corridor during the late 1930s. The 1000 Islands Bridge opened in 1938, during the parkway's construction. The parkway was signed as part of Ontario Highway 401 when the 400-series highway system was established in 1952, losing this designation in 1968 once the current Highway 401 alignment (through Lansdowne, Ontario) was completed further north.

Evidence of its former use can be seen today in the wide right-of-way; the unused westbound lanes now serve as a bicycle trail and twin bridges span two locations along the parkway.

The Thousand Islands Parkway begins at a split with Highway 401 on the outskirts of Gananoque. There is no access from westbound Highway 401 to the parkway nor from westbound on the parkway to eastbound Highway 401. However, immediately east of the split, both highways interchange with the sole remaining portion of Highway 2 under provincial jurisdiction. East of this point the three diverge into the rugged terrain of the Frontenac Arch, a protrusion of the Canadian Shield southward into New York state. In this area, the soil is underlain by layers of Paleozoic limestone and a granite bedrock. The granite often extends above the ground surface as large rock outcroppings. Both layers are prominent in the Jones Creek ravine.

...
Wikipedia