bridge at the city limits of Monroe. SR 203 travels through Monroe on Lewis Street, passing through residential neighborhoods and the west side of Al Borlin Park before reaching the city's downtown. The highway crosses Main Street and over the Scenic Subdivision of the BNSF Railway before SR 203 terminates at an intersection with US 2. Main Street continues north as Chain Lake Road, while US 2 continues east towards Stevens Pass and west to Snohomish and Everett. The junction is located east of the Evergreen State Fairgrounds and the terminus of SR 522. SR 203 is maintained by the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), which conducts an annual survey on state highways to measure traffic volume in terms of average annual daily traffic. Average traffic volumes on the highway in 2016 ranged from a minimum of 7,200 vehicles near Fall City to a maximum of 14,000 vehicles north of Duvall. Most of SR 203 is a rural, shoulder-less highway with two lanes and a speed limit of outside of city centers. A short section of the route within Monroe is also designated as a MAP-21 principal arterial route under the National Highway System. Due to the road's low-lying route alongside the Snoqualmie River, it is routinely flooded during winter storms and often closes for several days each year. History The Snoqualmie Valley was settled in the late 19th century and its communities were originally connected by a series of unpaved country roads, among the earliest to be built in King County. The initial road was built on the west side of the valley in the 1870s and a new road on the east side followed in the late 1880s, connecting Fall City, Tolt (now Carnation), and Cherry Valley to Monroe. The road originally crossed the Skykomish River via a short ferry route when the waters were too high for fording by wagons and horses; this crossing was replaced by the first fixed, wooden bridge at the site in August 1894. A branch of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad was built along the east bank of the river in 1911, necessitating the relocation of the road and the entire town of Cherry Valley (now Duvall). The northernmost section of the road, along Lewis Street in downtown Monroe, was paved by the city government in 1912 and connected to a bridge over the Skykomish River that was