The second portion begins at Talbotville Royal outside of St. Thomas at Highway 4, and travels to the western city limits of Port Colborne.

It originally connected to Niagara Falls, but was rerouted to Fort Erie following completion of the Peace Bridge in the late 1920s.

[1][4] The western segment of Highway 3 begins at the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Canada with the U.S. state of Michigan over the Detroit River.

[1] It begins at the southern terminus of Highway 4 at Talbotville Royal in Elgin County, just northwest of St. Thomas and south of London.

[4] This mostly straight and rural portion passes through several small villages before the Talbot Trail splits from it to follow Elgin/Norfolk County Road 38 through Straffordville.

It then curves east and travels parallel to the St. Thomas and Eastern Railway to Courtland, remerging with the Talbot Trail and snaking towards Delhi, now within Norfolk County.

[9] At Canborough, the historic Talbot Trail ends and Highway 3 veers south to Dunnville,[10] briefly travelling along the northern bank of the Grand River and gradually curving back eastward.

[10] Just north of Lake Erie, Highway 3 turns east and travels straight towards Port Colborne, passing just south of the Wainfleet Bog.

[1][4] Portions of the central segment of Highway 3 through several towns are maintained under Connecting Link agreements, including within Aylmer, Delhi, Simcoe, Cayuga and Dunnville.

[1][11] The roadway continues east through Fort Erie to the foot of the Peace Bridge as Niagara Regional Road 3, connecting with the Queen Elizabeth Way to provide access to the United States.

During this time the only upgrades to Highway 3 were the Essex Bypass and St. Thomas Expressway, as the rest of the route remained a two-lane road passing through small communities.

[19] The history of Highway 3 dates back over 200 years to the pioneering settlement era of Upper Canada following the American Revolution and the resulting influx of United Empire Loyalists.

Thomas Talbot, an influential scion who joined the British army at the age of 11, would challenge the government, the terrain, and the forces of nature to see to it that his road be built.

Due to his family legacy, Talbot worked through the ranks quickly and found himself a personal aide to John Graves Simcoe, the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada.

Although Simcoe had promised Talbot 5,000 acres (20,000,000 m2) of land in Yarmouth Township on the shoreline of Lake Erie, he had not made it official.

[20] Talbot returned to Upper Canada in 1803 with four families and a letter from Lord Hobart authorizing his grant, and established what is now the town of Port Stanley.

He insisted that a road would increase the value of the land in the surrounding townships, as well as providing a greater incentive for newcomers to settle in what was otherwise a desolate wilderness.

Gore instructed deputy surveyor Mahlon Burwell to "Build a road one chain wide, laid out on the principle of Yonge Street with lots on each side.

The Department of Public Works and Highways paid up to 60% of the construction and maintenance costs for these roads, while the counties were responsible for the remaining 40%.

[29] As part of the "spirit of cooperation" that inundated Canada and the US following World War I, as well as to celebrate a century of peace, a new bridge was planned between Fort Erie and Buffalo alongside the international railway crossing.

In foresight of this, the Department of Public Highways took control of a Welland County road between Chambers Corners and Fort Erie on May 11, 1927.

[30][42] Construction of a final extension, from Union Road north of Ruthven to past Highway 77 on the northern fringe of Leamington, was underway in late 1998;[30] it opened in early December 1999.

By the mid-1990s, a regular pattern of fatalities were occurring, prompting local politicians and Essex Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) Bruce Crozier to lobby the MTO widen the route.

[46][47] It was announced in June 2006 that the entire 33 kilometres (21 mi) bypass would be widened to four lanes with a grassy median separating the opposing flows of traffic.

The C$22.1 million second phase involved widening the highway between Walker Road and Maidstone to a five lane cross-section, and began in mid-November 2009.

committee to determine cost-cutting measures in order to balance the budget after a deficit incurred by former premier Bob Rae.

[66] It was determined that many Ontario highways no longer served long-distance traffic movement and should therefore be maintained by local or regional levels of government.

Numerous attempts by local and provincial politicians since then have led the MTO to begin remedying the situation by constructing an extension of Highway 401 (initially known as the Windsor–Essex Parkway, eventually designated as the Rt.

[71] The MTO took advantage of this opportunity to extend Highway 401 to the international border and began an environmental assessment on the entire project in late 2005.

[6] Work was done in Cayuga to install a new crossing over the Grand River, replacing the five-span steel structure that previously served traffic since 1924.