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First Gear: 1921 - 1940

Toll takers at Lake Washington Floating Bridge, 1940
Toll takers man their booths on the new Lake Washington Floating Bridge in 1940.
 
AAA directional signs before 1934
AAA directional signs aided motorists before the State took over the job in 1934.

The State Highway Board was replaced with a Highway Committee in 1921 and the Highway Department became a division, headed by a Supervisor of Highways, in a new Department of Public Works. Washington also levied its first gas tax (one cent per gallon) in 1921 and began removing commercial signs on state road property. That same year, engineer Homer Hadley “floated” the idea of a concrete pontoon bridge across Lake Washington.

In 1923, the Legislature separated highways from Public Works and placed them under the direction of a State Highway Engineer. The program was reorganized again in 1929 to abolish the Highway Committee and create the Department of Highways. As the Great Depression deepened, road construction expanded to provide “relief” to the unemployed. To cover the cost, the State issued its first road bonds in 1933.

President Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal” funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into the state for hydroelectric dams, irrigation, harbors, parks, bridges, and roads. In 1937, the State adopted a new Highway Code and created a Toll Bridge Authority within the Department of Highways to finance high-cost projects through user charges.

The decade closed with both a triumph and a disaster for the Department of Highways as the new Mercer Island (or Lake Washington) Floating Bridge and Tacoma Narrows Bridge opened a day apart in July 1940. The latter collapsed during a November storm that same year.

Timeline: 1921 - 1940
  • The State Highway Board is replaced by the State Highway Committee (comprising the Governor, State Auditor, and State Treasurer) in 1921 and a Division of Highways is created in a new Department of Public Works, under the direction of Supervisor of Highways James Allen.
  • Washington levies its first gasoline tax, one cent per gallon, to raise $900,000 annually, in March 1921.
  • First State Highways Testing Laboratory (now the WSDOT Materials Laboratory) is established in Olympia in July 1921.
  • Legislature removes highways from the Department of Public Works and establishes the position of State Highway Engineer (first filled by James Allen) in 1923.
  • State installs its first standard-dimension steel truss bridge over the Dosewallips River in August 1923.
  • Final 36-mile stretch of Pacific Highway is paved between Kalama and Toledo to complete State Road No. 1 (now SR 99) in October 1923.
  • J. W. Hoover succeeds Allen as State Highway Engineer on April 1, 1925.
  • Present boundaries of six State Highway Regions are established in 1925 (a temporary seventh district directed central Puget Sound Interstate construction between 1957 and 1975).
  • Samuel J. Humes becomes Highway Engineer on May 1, 1927.
  • First Vantage Bridge over the Columbia River opens on September 8, 1927 (replaced in 1962).
  • Department of Highways becomes a separate code department on March 14, 1929. Samuel Humes is named first Director of Highways.
  • Olympic Loop Highway (U.S. 101) opens August 26–27, 1931.
  • George Washington Memorial Bridge (Aurora Bridge) opens on February 22, 1932.
  • Legislature approves $10 million in emergency relief bonds for public roadwork, funded in part from the gas tax, in February 1933. This is the first bonded debt issued by the State for roads.
  • Lacey V. Murrow becomes Director of Highways on March 20, 1933.
  • Highway Department establishes the first truck weighing stations in 1933, and occupies a new Olympia headquarters in 1934.
  • Deception Pass and Canoe Pass bridges open between Whidbey Island and Fidalgo Island in July 1935.
  • Legislature approves sweeping new highway code, raises speed limit to 50 m.p.h., and creates new Toll Bridge Authority within the Department of Highways in March 1937.
  • Final paving opens four lanes to traffic on Pacific Highway (SR 99) from Olympia to Everett on September 15, 1937.
  • Tacoma Narrows Bridge opens on July 1, 1940, and Mercer Island (Lake Washington) Floating Bridge (now Lacey V. Murrow Floating Bridge) opens the next day.
  • James A. Davis becomes acting Director of Highways in September 1940, after the U.S. Army calls Lacey Murrow to active duty.

•  Introduction
•  1905-1920
•  1921-1940
•  1941-1960
•  1961-1977
•  1978-1990
•  1991-2004
•  2005 and Beyond

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