The article isn’t doing that work. I can’t talk about “sidewalk” in any context, it always has to be “a sidewalk” or “sidewalks”. I don’t need an article to build a bridge to Detroit. And I don’t need an article to build a stairway to heaven or an elevator to space (it took me a while to think of space, I can’t think of another example of an uncountable noun with a definite location; I did think of using an example where I might refer to my path through the snow as a “path to fries” because I shovelled it for the purpose of getting to the restaurant to buy fries, which is something an English speaker might well say, but it would be at least a bit jocular, I think).
What’s happened is I’m not using “to” to relate to the verb at all but instead I’m using it to start an adjective phrase modifying the noun. I don’t [create a bridge] to Detroit. I create a [bridge to Detroit]. After I’m done making the thing, I’m going to call it the “bridge to Detroit”.
In create a path to the sidewalk I’m less clear on whether “to the sidewalk” is an adjective phrase modifying the path or whether it is the direction that the verb “make” takes because in that context creating is actually a thing I’m doing in a direction.
Of course, “to locomotive investigators” is an awfully weird adjective phrase to append to “miniature death scenes”. But again, it’s English, so God only knows what someone might mean.
