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 the Niagara Region. , pictured in the background rising onto the
Garden City Skyway. 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 over which it travelled, In the late 1840s, the Niagara and Ten Mile Creek Plank Road Company
planked the length of the road. 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 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 was designated as Highway 55; both routes existed simultaneously between 1957 and 1958. By 1961, this route had been decommissioned. The recent incarnation of Highway 55 was established following the release of the Niagara Peninsula Planning Study in 1964, which recommended that the province take jurisdiction of the Niagara Stone Road (then designated Lincoln County Road 3). It was subsequently assumed on November 5, 1970, the same year 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. It is now designated as Niagara Regional Road 55. The majority of the former route is named the Niagara Stone Road; within Niagara-on-the-Lake, it is named Mississauga Street. == Major intersections ==