History of the Wenatchee/Quincy Highway

If you Google Driving directions from the East Wenatchee Fred Meyer to the Quincy McDonald's - Google Maps says the nearly 30-mile trip will take 33 minutes.

ROUTE 28 Train tracks of Rock Island CREDIT: GNRHS collection
ROUTE 28 Train tracks of Rock Island CREDIT: GNRHS collection
loading...


When was Wenatchee Valley to Quincy Highway first built?

Washington State government took over existing county roads along the route of the Great Northern Railway, which was completed in 1893 and connected Everett to Spokane.

The Quincy to Wenatchee extension - State Road 10 (SR 10) from 1923 to 1937 - was built in 1915. Traffic between the two towns needed assistance by an auto-carrying ferry.

ROUTE 28 same photo as above - today CREDIT: Google Earth
ROUTE 28 same photo as above - today CREDIT: Google Earth
loading...

The Quincy to Wenatchee route needed a ferry until 1926

“State Road 10” connected Quincy to the Palisades. A Ferry took vehicles across the Columbia River near the bottom of Colockum Pass - through Malaga to Wenatchee.

The Wenatchee–Quincy highway was fully completed in 1926. Plans to add pavement began in the late 1920s - and was completed in the late 1930s.

ROUTE 28 pre 1926 CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 DEED - Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported via David Rumsey Map Collection, David Rumsey Map Center, Stanford Libraries
ROUTE 28 pre 1926 CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 DEED - Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported via David Rumsey Map Collection, David Rumsey Map Center, Stanford Libraries
loading...

Another name change

As the Quincy to Wenatchee highway paving project was nearing completion - it was renamed Primary State Road 10 (PSR 10) and kept this name until 1964.

Route 28's connection to the George Sellar Bridge has improved.

In 2013, WSDOT (Washington State Department of Transportation) changed how State Route 285 flows (from the George Sellar Bridge) onto State Route 28.

State Route 28 lane widening?

WSDOT has plans to add lanes to State Route 28 - in both directions. Construction for the Route 28’s lane expansion began in 2024.

INFO: Rand McNally, Washington State Department of Transportation Archives

LOOK: See how much gasoline cost the year you started driving

To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.

Gallery Credit: Sophia Crisafulli

Guide: Top 5 Counties With The Most Farmland In Washington State

Discover the five counties with the most farmlands in the state of Washington. 

Gallery Credit: Rik Mikals

Don't get fooled: Here's 25 scam texts I received in just one month

Yes, some of these may be humorous, but some do appear legit and often can fool you.
Spam texts are listed in the same order that they were received.

Gallery Credit: Mike Brant

 

More From KW3