Kingsway is a major road that crosses through the Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 cities of Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

 and Burnaby, British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

. Originally called Westminster Road, it was renamed Kingsway in 1913.

While it is a busy commercial city street and not a freeway, it is an official alternate route for the Trans-Canada Highway

Trans-Canada Highway

The Trans-Canada Highway is a federal-provincial highway system that joins the ten provinces of Canada. It is, along with the Trans-Siberian Highway and Australia's Highway 1, one of the world's longest national highways, with the main route spanning 8,030 km...

 (as Highway 1A) and the provincial Highway 99 (as Highway 99A). The road runs diagonally from northwest to southeast, emerging from Vancouver's Main Street

Main Street (Vancouver)

Main Street is a major north-south thoroughfare bisecting Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It runs from Waterfront Road by Burrard Inlet in the north, to Kent Avenue alongside the north arm of the Fraser River in the south.-Route:...

 and becoming 12th Street at the Burnaby-New Westminster border.

Kingsway is one of the longest roads in the Metropolitan Vancouver area and is therefore somewhat difficult to characterize. Many segments of the road offer diverse family-owned and ethnic shopping opportunities and restaurants particularly Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, Taiwanese, Japanese, South Asian and from other ethnicities. And there are a number of hotels, supermarkets, and freestanding fast-food locations along other portions of its route.

In Burnaby, Metrotown

Metrotown

Metropolis at Metrotown is a shopping mall complex in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. With over 450 shops and services, it is the largest mall in British Columbia, and the 2nd largest in Canada...

 and the central business district are located along Kingsway. SkyTrain

SkyTrain (Vancouver)

SkyTrain is a light rapid transit system in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. SkyTrain has of track and uses fully automated trains on grade-separated tracks, running mostly on elevated guideways, which helps SkyTrain to hold consistently high on-time reliability...

 is located along a major portion of the Kingsway route and there is a major SkyTrain station at Metrotown. There are numerous bus routes operating along the road and it is the principal route between Metrotown and Downtown Vancouver.

History

Kingsway follows the Wagon Road built by the Royal Engineers between Vancouver's historic Gastown

Gastown

Gastown is a national historic site in Vancouver, British Columbia, at the northeast end of Downtown adjacent to the Downtown Eastside. Its historical boundaries were the waterfront , Columbia Street, Hastings Street, and Cambie Street, which were the borders of the 1870 townsite survey, the proper...

 waterfront and the former capital of the Colony of British Columbia

Colony of British Columbia

The Colony of British Columbia was a crown colony in British North America from 1858 until 1866. At its creation, it physically constituted approximately half the present day Canadian province of British Columbia, since it did not include the Colony of Vancouver Island, the vast and still largely...

 at New Westminster. As Vancouver became established with a street grid beyond Gastown, the route was named Westminster Road, later Westminster Street, including what is now Main Street from 7th north to the waterfront, and ultimately was a component of the Trans-Canada Highway until the construction of the new freeway route . Since Vancouver's street grid had not yet been laid when the road was first built, Kingsway is diagonal, following the gentlest incline up the spine of the Burrard Peninsula

Burrard Peninsula

The Burrard Peninsula is a peninsula in the Lower Mainland region of southwestern British Columbia, Canada, lying between Burrard Inlet to the north and the Fraser River to the south, and bounded by Georgia Strait on the west and the Pitt River on the east...

, which peaks near Metrotown

Metrotown

Metropolis at Metrotown is a shopping mall complex in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. With over 450 shops and services, it is the largest mall in British Columbia, and the 2nd largest in Canada...

 in Burnaby. During the Great Depression

Great Depression in Canada

Canada was hit hard by the Great Depression. Between 1929 and 1939, the gross national product dropped 40% . Unemployment reached 27% at the depth of the Depression in 1933...

 of the 1930s, government make-work projects saw labourers widen Kingsway considerably, so that now it has six lanes along most of its length.

Tribute

The Canadian poet Michael Turner

Michael Turner (musician)

For other people named Michael Turner, see Michael Turner.Michael Turner is a musician, and writer of poetry, prose and opera librettos....

 based his book of poetry, Kingsway, on Kingsway Street.

Vancouver Illustrator Bambi Edlund includes an Ode to Kingsway in her daily drawing project.