Paving the Way to the Coast
Grant County commits significant funds to bridge the gap between desert isolation and the coastal trade routes.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Another step toward an all-winter highway down the Columbia river from the Canadian border to the Coast was taken this week when the Grant County commissioners appropriated $3,000 for improvement of the new road between Vantage ferry and Beverly and $3,500 for graveling the 'township' road running east and west from Wahluke and Beverly. These sums are in the Grant County budget made up this week and will be expended next winter when there is moisture in the ground. The road between Vantage ferry and Beverly which was built by Grant county this spring has cost that county already $45,000 and will cost at least $5,000 more before it is fully completed. As an indication of the amount of travel being attracted to this new Columbia river road, the Wahluke ferry has crossed over 1,200 cars since the Vantage-Beverly link was opened this spring.
“Another step toward an all-winter highway down the Columbia river from the Canadian border to the Coast.”
The struggle to connect the semi-arid interior of Washington to the urban coast is a century-old civic project. Modern commuters on Highway 26 or I-90 still rely on the infrastructure decisions made by these early commissioners.
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