Washington State Route 20

State Route 20
Defined by RCW 47.17.080, maintained by Washington DOT
Length:	436.12 mi[1] (701.87 km)
Formed:	1964
West end:	US 101 in Discovery Bay
Major junctions:	I-5 in Burlington US 97 near Okanogan SR 21 in Republic US 395 in Colville
East end:	US 2 in Newport
State highways in Washington < SR 19 SR 21 > Lists: current - Interstates - U.S. Routes - 1937-70 - 1964 renumbering

North Cascades Highway

State Route 20, also known alternately as the North-Cross Highway, SR 20 or the North Cascades Highway, is a State Highway (Route) in the State of Washington. It travels from an intersection with U.S. Route 101 at Discovery Bay near Port Townsend to Newport at a junction with U.S. Route 2 about 400 feet (122 m) from the Idaho state line. Although U.S. Route 12 has a larger east–west extent, SR 20 is the longest highway in Washington at 436.13 miles (701.88 km), only 5.3 miles (8.6 km) longer than US 12.^[1] The highway has been called "The Most Beautiful Mountain Highway in the State of Washington."^[2]

History

What is known today as the North Cascades Highway was originally the corridor used by local Native American tribes as a trading route from Washington's Eastern Plateau country to the Pacific Coast for more than 8,000 years. After the California Gold Rush of 1849, white settlers started to arrive in the North Cascades looking for gold as well as fur-bearing animals. This far north, the settlers needed a clear route through some of the most rugged terrain in Washington Territory.

Rugged, remote peaks of the North Cascades, just east of Washington Pass

It wasn't until 1895, however, that the first state funding to explore a possible route through the Cascade Range was appropriated.

After one year of surveying possible routes in the Upper Skagit River region, the State Road Commission concluded in 1896 that the Skagit gorge was not a practical route. Instead, the commission settled upon the Cascade Pass route, several miles south of the Skagit gorge. The Cascade Pass route begin to be roughed out in 1897 and shortly afterward, state highway maps showed the road as either State Highway 1 or the Cascade Wagon Road. In the following years, floods on the Cascade River took out most of the work completed on the road and led Washington's first State Highway Commissioner to report in 1905 that almost all the money appropriated to that time for the road had been wasted. After these unsuccessful attempts to build a northern cross-mountain highway, the state designated that a highway be built along the Methow River from Pateros to Hart's Pass, high above Eastern Washington's Methow Valley. This road was completed in 1909.

By 1936, both of Seattle City Light projects, Gorge Dam and Diablo Dam had been completed and were attracting visitors and families to the area. In 1940, the first stage of the completion of Ross Dam was reached. Because this influx of population and interest in the area once again demonstrated the need for a northern route over the high Cascades, highway promoters began to try and persuade other boosters to finally abandon the idea of the ill-fated Cascade Pass route and instead look to agreeing on a route across Rainy and Washington Pass. In 1953, the North Cascades Highway Association was formed with politicians, lobbyists, and business owners from both sides of the North Cascades taking part. As these boosters pushed Olympia harder to move forward on the highway plan, more and more requests for huge sales of old-growth timber from along the highway corridor came in. These increasing timber requests were used to support the need for a highway.

Finally, in 1958, the State of Washington appropriated funds to build a highway from the Seattle City Light company town of Diablo to Thunder Arm, a southern arm of Diablo Lake. Funds were also allotted to improve access roads on both sides of the North Cascades and construction on this section of the highway began in 1959. Over the next nine years, construction of the road would continue along with the signing of the North Cascades National Park bill by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968. With this bill, the hope of using the highway as access for high-dollar timber sales was quashed. Nonetheless, businessmen and residents on both sides of the North Cascades were hopeful and supportive of the tourist dollars that would be seen with the opening of the "North-Cross Highway".

North Cascades Highway just west of Rainy Pass and the Pacific Crest Trail

Moreoever, the Methow Valley town of Winthrop, Washington was in the process of transforming itself from a sleepy cow-town into a tourist town with a western-style theme, complete with false-front buildings and boardwalk sidewalks. Finally, in mid-1972, the more-than-a-century-old idea of connecting western Washington with eastern Washington by a northern highway route had come to fruition.

Amidst fanfare, music provided by the Concrete High School Band, and ribbon cutting, Highway 20 was officially connected from western to eastern Washington via Washington Pass on September 2, 1972. Then-governor Daniel J. Evans, a host of state dignitaries, and then-President Richard M. Nixon's brother Donald were in attendance for the opening and vehicle procession over the Cascade Mountains.^[3]

Route description

Liberty Bell Mountain from 5477 ft. elevation Washington Pass on North Cascades Highway

SR 20 begins in Discovery Bay, Washington at U.S. Route 101 and goes north to Port Townsend. It is connected via a ferry into Island County. From Island County, the route continues into Skagit County, crosses the Cascade Mountains by means of Washington Pass into Eastern Washington, and terminates in Newport, Washington near the Idaho border.

Q-Q plot for first opening/final closing dates^[4]

Annual closure

SR 20 is one of only three State Routes in Washington that have portions closed in the winter (the others being State Route 410 and State Route 123). Washington Pass annually receives several feet of snow throughout the winter, and is prone to avalanches leaving over 20 feet (6.1 m) of snow on the road.

As of December 2008^[update], the median first open date was April 20. The median final closure date was November 26. During the drought of the winter of 1976–1977, the highway was not closed.^[4]

Major intersections

County	Location	Mile[1]	Destinations	Notes
Jefferson County		0.00	US 101 – Quilcene, Olympia, Port Angeles
		7.79	SR 19 south – Port Ludlow
	Port Townsend	12.57	Port Townsend-Keystone Ferry across Admiralty Inlet
Island
		16.00	SR 525 south – Mukilteo Ferry
Skagit	Anacortes	47.45	SR 20 Spur – Anacortes, San Juan Ferry
		54.07	Farm to Market Road, Best Road	Former SR 237
		54.62	SR 536 east – Mount Vernon	No access from SR 20 west to SR 536 east
	Burlington	59.10	I-5 – Vancouver, BC, Seattle	Interchange
	Sedro-Woolley	64.37	SR 9 south – Arlington	West end of SR 9 overlap
		65.64	SR 9 north – Sumas	East end of SR 9 overlap
	Rockport	97.21	SR 530 west – Darrington, Arlington
		105.63	Cascade Road – Marblemount	Former PSH 17
Okanogan		179.08	Lost River Road – Mazama	Former PSH 16
	Twisp	200.93	Second Avenue	Former PSH 17
		203.48	SR 153 south – Chelan, Wenatchee
		229.99	Old 97 – Malott, Brewster	Former US 97 south; proposed SR 213
	Okanogan	232.20	SR 215 north / US 97 Bus. north / SR 20 Bus. east – Okanogan, Omak	West end of US 97 Bus. overlap
		232.70	US 97 south – Wenatchee	East end of US 97 Bus. overlap; west end of US 97 overlap
	Omak	237.76	SR 155 south – Omak, Grand Coulee Dam
		238.84	SR 215 south / US 97 Bus. south / SR 20 Bus. west – Omak
	Tonasket	261.34	US 97 north – Penticton	East end of US 97 overlap
Ferry	Republic	302.03	SR 21 south – Keller, Wilbur	West end of SR 21 overlap
		304.59	SR 21 north – Curlew, Grand Forks	East end of SR 21 overlap
		341.43	US 395 north – Laurier, Grand Forks	West end of US 395 overlap
Stevens		344.18	SR 25 – Marcus, Northport, Davenport
	Colville	354.33	US 395 south – Spokane	East end of US 395 overlap
Pend Oreille		389.66	SR 31 north – Metaline Falls
		420.70	SR 211 south – Spokane, Davis Lake, Sacheen Lake
	Newport	436.13	US 2 – Sandpoint, Spokane

Trivia

• As the driver of then-Washington State governor Daniel J. Evans' limousine on the official opening day of the highway, serial killer Ted Bundy is officially the first man to traverse the North Cascades Highway over Washington Pass, down through the Methow Valley and into the town of Winthrop.^[5]

See also

• State Route 20 Business (1973-present)
• State Route 20 Spur (1973-present)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Washington State Route 20

References

	v • d • e State highways in Washington related to SR 20
SR 211 - SR 213 - SR 215
Former or proposed: SR 237

v • d • e   State highways in Pend Oreille County, Washington U.S. Route 2 in Washington • Washington State Route 20 • Washington State Route 31 • Idaho State Highway 41 • Washington State Route 211

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