The corridor along the Kootenay and Vermilion Rivers had been uses as a first nations travel route for thousands of years. In 1858, Sir James Hector travelled through Vermilion Pass and recommended that it would be the best route for a wagon road. In the early 1900s settlers in the Columbia Valley advocated for improved connections with Banff and Calgary and lobbied the BC provincial government to construct a road. With the overall goal of constructing an all-Canadian road between the Canadian Prairies and Pacific Ocean, the Alberta provincial and federal governments were consulted. Construction began in 1911, and by 1914 the road was opened between Calgary and Vermilion Pass as well as a western section. The outbreak of World War I resulted in a suspension of construction, and following the conclusion of the war the British Columbia provincial government did not have enough funds to complete the project. The Banff-Windermere Road Agreement was reached whereby the federal government would complete the remaining of road, and in exchange they would receive a buffer of land on each side of the highway for conservation purposes; approximately in total. This resulted in the creation of Kootenay National Park. The road opened in 1922 and was first highway to cross the Central Canadian Rockies, with the Kicking Horse Trail across Kicking Horse Pass (the corridor which eventually became part of the Trans-Canada Highway) opening in 1926, connecting Lake Louise and Golden.