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Ontario Highway 404

highway in Ontario

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 12, 2026
Entity authorityQ2872847
Source-derived summary

King's Highway 404 (pronounced "four-oh-four"), also known as Highway 404 and colloquially as the four-oh-four, is a north–south 400-series highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. As the continuation of the municipal Don Valley Parkway (DVP) north of Highway 401, it connects Toronto with East Gwillimbury. The 50.1-kilometre (31.1 mi) controlled-access freeway also connects with Highway 407 in Markham and the Don Valley Parkway in North York and Toronto, which formed the northeastern ring road of the Greater Toronto Area until the opening of Highway 412 in 2016. Highway 404 provides access to the eastern edge of Richmond Hill, Aurora and Newmarket and the western edge of Whitchurch-Stouffville, in addition to the southern edge of Keswick.

Metro Toronto (Metro) completed the Don Valley Parkway (DVP) to Sheppard Avenue in 1966. Metro initially planned extension of the DVP to Steeles Avenue, northward the province would continue the route which was inaugurated as Highway 404. However, the province ending up decided that their new highway would also run south of Steeles, incorporating the existing segment of the Metro-built DVP between Sheppard and Highway 401. The first section south of Steeles opened in 1977, over what was formerly Woodbine Avenue. Over the next twelve years, the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO) undertook a continuous construction program to extend the highway to Davis Drive in Newmarket. This was completed on October 24, 1989.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Ontario Highway 404” is highway in Ontario. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Ontario, Highway and highway, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2016, 1966, 1977, 1989—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1977. For this dossier, Ontario, Highway and highway is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “highway in Ontario” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2872847. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2016, 1966, 1977 and 1989.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Ontario Highway 404”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Ontario Highway 404 primary sources, Ontario Highway 404 archive and Ontario research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Ontario Highway 404”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Ontario Highway 404” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.