defense, and mobility. WSDOT designates the same corridor as a Highway of Statewide Significance, which includes highways that connect major communities in the state of Washington. History The first highway that traveled through the Columbia River Gorge was surveyed in 1905 at a cost of $15,000 (equivalent to $ in ) by the state of Washington as a wagon road connecting Washougal in Clark County to Lyle in Klickitat County that was designated as secondary State Road 8. State Road 8 was extended east from Lyle to Maryhill and northeast to the county seat of Goldendale in 1907. The secondary highway, named the North Bank Highway, was re-aligned in 1913 to follow closer to the Columbia River and was extended west to Vancouver and east to Mabton via Satus Pass. State Road 8 was co-signed with US 830 after the United States Numbered Highways were approved by the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) on November 11, 1926, also creating a short concurrency with US 97. The North Bank Highway was constructed with macadam pavement and was dedicated from Lyle to Dallesport in 1934, shortly before State Road 8 was re-designated as PSH 8 and the Evergreen Highway in 1937, traveling east from Vancouver to Mayhill and north to Yakima. SSH 8E, a branch of PSH 8, was also established in 1937 and ran east from PSH 8 in Maryhill to Paterson and north to PSH 3 in Prosser. SSH 8E was replaced by the Maryhill–Kennewick branch of PSH 8 in 1943, amidst proposals to extend the Evergreen Highway to the Tri-Cities in 1949. US 197, a spur of US 97, was created in 1952 and became concurrent with US 830 and PSH 8 from the Dallesport area to a junction with its parent route in Maryhill. A section of the winding PSH 8 between Maryhill and Roosevelt was replaced with a new highway running along the north bank of the river in June 1964. PSH 8 was replaced fully by US 830 during the 1964 state highway renumbering, but US 830 was decommissioned in 1968 before the new state routes were codified. SR 14, previously on the route of US 12, was established in 1967 and remains the designation for the Evergreen Highway. The concurrency with US 197 was removed by WSDOT in 1980, but was not recognized by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials