preceded by several unpaved roads built by county governments along the corridor by the 1910s, including a road across the Moxee and Black Rock valleys, a ferry across the Columbia River at White Bluffs, and a road continuing to Connell, bypassing Othello. The state government did not improve the gravel county roads that encompassed SSH 11A, but did relocate its toll-free ferry from White Bluffs to Hanford in May 1938. The Hanford ferry was initially planned to use a cable-operated system, but costs forced it to be downgraded to a tug-and-barge ferry. During World War II, the U.S. military selected the Hanford area as the site of a major weapons development facility and a section of SSH 11A was acquired via a request of the Secretary of War filed on July 21, 1943. The section, located between Cold Creek and Hanford, was closed permanently to non-military traffic on November 15, 1943, and divided SSH 11A into two disconnected highways. The rest of the highway had been paved by the state government in the early 1940s, with the exception of a section west of Connell that remained gravel. SSH 11A was relocated in 1953 to a crossing of the Columbia River north of Cold Creek at Vernita and would continue along a new highway along the Columbia River to the east end of the former Hanford ferry. The state government had initially expected the highway to re-open after the war, but continued use of Hanford for weapons and energy development prompted them to file a lawsuit against the federal government to seek reimbursement to fund construction of the new highway around the site. The U.S. District Court's decision to award only $1 in nominal damages in 1952 was upheld by a decision of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals two years later, citing the state's delay in identifying a suitable alternate route. In response, Representative Donald H. Magnuson introduced a Congressional bill to reimburse $581,721 to the state (equivalent to $ in dollars), but it was vetoed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in September 1957. From January 1954 to December 1955, Army Corps of Engineers constructed a dirt road on the north side of the Columbia River between Vernita and White Bluffs, passing through a less-restricted portion of the Hanford Site. The road was built as part of an agreement between the state and federal governments that was negotiated during the