1923: Hundreds Show Up for the Formal Opening of the Pacific Highway

October 24, 1923

The Pacific Highway was officially opened in Olympia, Washington. This international highway would ultimately extend from Vancouver in British Columbia to San Diego in California. There were 1,687 miles (2,715 kilometers) of the Pacific Highway in place by 1926, making this route the longest continuously paved road at that time.

The 1923 dedication of the Pacific Highway took place, in the words of the Associated Press, “[under] the spell of an azure sky and the warm greeting of a friendly sun” and was attended by a host of public officials. These individuals included Louis F. Hart, governor of Washington; Walter M. Pierce, governor of Oregon; and L.I. Hewes, a deputy chief engineer at the Bureau of Public Roads and the administrator of that federal agency’s San Francisco-based western regional office.

There were also delegates from the Washington State Good Roads Association on hand for the opening of the Pacific Highway. Hundreds of other people from Washington, Oregon, California, and British Columbia likewise took the time to be there for festivities, which included a caravan of numerous automobiles traveling on the new highway. (The accompanying photo of the Pacific Highway along a section of the Columbia River in Washington was taken sometime around 1925.)

Photo Credit: Public Domain

For more information on the dedication of the Pacific Highway, please check out Stockton Independent 25 October 1923  and FHWA By Day  – 24 October