Snake Road bends because it has to climb the steep face of the Niagara Escarpment. The route is much older than the cars that now use it.
Flamborough Archives traces the route to a trail used by First Nations people travelling between areas north of the escarpment, including around Lake Medad, and hunting and fishing grounds near Burlington Bay.
The trail became a toll road
By the middle of the 1800s, Waterdown needed better links to Hamilton and the bay. In 1853, James Kent Griffin financed a gravel toll road along the old route.
The climb dictated the design. A straight line up the escarpment would have been too steep for wagons, so the road turned repeatedly across the slope. Historical accounts describe at least 100 bends and turns along the larger route.
That is also where the name came from. Flamborough Archives says it was called Snake Road because of the winding path, not because the area had an unusual number of snakes.
Cars made the old route less useful
The same bends that helped horses and wagons climb the escarpment became a problem once motor traffic increased. Highway improvements in the 1920s gave drivers faster alternatives. Snake Road gradually shifted from an important regional route to a local one.
The old winding section through the Grindstone Creek valley toward York Boulevard was permanently closed to vehicles in 1974. Part of the former alignment is now a pedestrian trail.
Burlington considered straightening it
During the 1980s, Burlington proposed reconstructing Snake Road and removing some of its curves after complaints about the bends. The plan did not proceed after opposition from Waterdown residents, according to Flamborough Archives.
Drainage work was completed, but the basic shape survived.
The road is being rebuilt in 2026, but not straightened
Burlington is spending about $5 million on the section from Old York Road to the city limit this year. The city says the work includes new asphalt, guardrails, stormwater culverts, traffic calming and other minor safety improvements.
The current project renews the road. It does not erase the winding route that gave Snake Road its name.
Snake Road is one of several Burlington roads whose names still carry their history. We traced other unusual street-name stories here.