US 395, Part 24: Washington State Line to WA 397 (Benton and Franklin Counties; Kennewick, Pasco)

Now reaching Washington state, we will pass through several counties in this part: Benton, named for Missouri senator Thomas Hart Benton, with county seat of Prosser, only 4,838 residents [2000] within a county of 142,475 [2000]; Franklin, named for Benjamin Franklin, with county seat of Pasco, named for the Pacific railroad and carrying 32,066 [2000] residents of the county's 49,347 [2000]; and Walla Walla county, described in Division 1. Our twin divisions continue through this Part and will merge at the end before the next one.

The Tri-City region of Washington state refers specifically to Richland, Kennewick and Pasco, split between Benton and Franklin counties with a combined population of 125,467 [2000]. Originally sleepy farm towns, the Manhattan Project and the nearby Hanford Nuclear Reservation would change the region forever. An overnight population explosion during World War II sprang up to support the influx of military dollars and personnel, and Richland's heritage as the town that built the bomb persists to this day. After the war, the economy diversified considerably, and while agriculture is still an important industry, aerospace and energy technology continues the region's nuclear past. Unfortunately, contamination from the Manhattan Project and the Nuclear Reservation continue to seep into the Columbia despite cleanup attempts.

US 395's most famous presence in the Tri-Cities is the Blue Bridge crossing over the Columbia River (for the second time on the modern alignment) between Kennewick and Pasco. This is amusing from a historical sense as it actually wasn't routed there until 1986-7, when it was shifted west from US 730 to run along Interstate 82 (see Part 22 for a refresher on why we're split into two Divisions, and their full respective routings). The Blue Bridge, constructed in 1954, was painted blue to contrast it from the Green Bridge, a precarious 1922 crossing to the east along which old US 410 was routed when the US highway system came into existence. Originally, US 410 entered Kennewick more or less along modern WA 224 and then south along modern WA 240, crossing modern US 395, and proceeding along or near modern W Columbia Dr to modern WA 397, which replaced the Green Bridge, and then north over the river to intersect US 395 where WA 397 does so today.

In 1967, US 410 was renumbered to US 12 and re-routed along the larger-capacity Blue Bridge. This persisted until Interstate 182 was constructed as part of the I-82 project in 1986, when US 12 was moved to it and the Blue Bridge closed for retrofitting and enhanced vertical clearance. Reopened later that year, it was given a US 395 shield instead, which remains to this day. As for the Green Bridge, attempts to declare it a historic landmark failed and it was torn down in 1990 to be replaced by the fascinating white Cable Bridge, along which WA 397 now runs.

On US 395's present-day alignment between the state line and its northeastern course out of Pasco, it travels on what is signed as the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail. The Lewis and Clark Expedition was the first American overland expedition to the Pacific coast and back, commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson after the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 in which the young United States acquired almost 530 million acres of new territory from France. Jefferson personally selected Captain Meriwether Lewis, his private secretary, and Lewis in turn selected Second Lieutenant William Clark as his partner, who intriguingly had been Lewis' commanding officer in the Army a few years prior. Lewis and Clark set out as part of the 33-member Corps of Discovery in 1804 and followed the Missouri River westward through what is now Kansas City, MO and Omaha, NE, then turning northward into South Dakota, North Dakota and westward into Montana. From there, the party passed through Grand Falls, MT, and then west into the Bitterroot Range of the Rockies for a desperate crossing during which the men were reduced to eating three of their horses. Assisted by Nez Perce Indians, they were able to survive and reach the Clearwater River, in modern Idaho. This was the last major hurdle, as the Clearwater is ultimately a tributary of the Columbia (via the Snake River), and from there they were easily able to navigate to the sea. By the middle of November 1805, they found themselves on the Pacific Ocean and spent the winter there on the shores of the Columbia in their makeshift Fort Clatsop to return to the east in 1806. John Jacob Astor's base, Fort Astor, would be established nearby just a few years later (Part 23).

Miraculously, only one man was lost during the trek (to appendicitis), and the expedition brought back exceptional new information on the geography of the West (such as their careful cartography, a portion depicted at left), 178 new plants and 122 new species and subspecies of animals, and established the groundwork for the Oregon Trail and Army exploration to come. It was also a model of diplomatic and peaceful relationships with Indians tribes occupying the lands, including the Shoshone (and the Shoshone/Hidatsa native Sacagawea, who accompanied the party with her French-Canadian husband Touissant Charbonneau and was an integral part of its guidance and local relations), Nez Perce and Flathead. Finally, it strengthened the American claim to the west and Oregon Territory, an inestimably important note for those of us who live there now.

As a footnote, Lewis and Clark had very different paths after the successful conclusion of the expedition. Lewis' end was sorrowful and rapid. Receiving a reward of 1500 acres near Saint Louis after his return, he ascended to governorship of the Louisiana Territory (of which St. Louis was then the capital). In 1809, Lewis was found dead; his wrists were slit, and he had been shot in the head and chest in an apparent suicide. As for Clark, with his experiences with Indian nations in the West, he was appointed superintendant of Indian affairs for the Louisiana Territory in 1807. Setting up shop in Saint Louis as well, he became governor in 1813 when the Missouri Territory was formed, and established a post in Wisconsin during the War of 1812. Continuing as superintendant after the war's conclusion, he took various military and sometimes diplomatic approaches to the complex relationships with the various tribes in the region and won wide respect and influence for his careful considerations. He died in 1838, and his family erected a 35' obelisk to mark the site in St. Louis (which was rededicated in 2004 by his descendants and leaders from the Osage Nation and the Shoshone).

In Washington state, we will cast-off the highway and route number disconnect of Oregon and (old) California, but for the history of certain routes we will need to introduce two points of notation: Primary State Highways and Secondary State Highways (before the modern unified numbering system legislatively replaced them in 1970, despite being signposted as early as 1964). The first designation of state routes "State Roads" in 1923 used one or two digit route numbers, and occasionally name only; in 1937, a second set introduced by the state legislature added letter-suffixed routes christened Secondary State Highways (SSH) as opposed to the earlier trunk routes, which were officially made Primary State Highways (PSH) and were all numbered at that point, even named-only routes. All Federal US highways and subsequently Interstate highways were co-routed with a state highway number -- not necessarily PSHes, mind you -- until the system was unified in 1964 and finally legislatively eliminated in 1970. Convention usually tacks the SH classification onto the route number to denote this old designation and I will do the same. As with California, these are historical and I will mention them only parenthetically; US 395 was internally WA 11 (PSH) "Central Washington Highway" from the Oregon state line to just outside of Spokane, where it intersected US 10 and (later) ALT US 10 and (later still) US 2 -- see Part 25 -- to enter town as WA 2 (PSH) "Sunset Highway." From Spokane, it diverged north, accepting WA 3 (PSH) "Inland Empire Highway" from US 195 up to the Canadian border. Despite being typically unsigned, these route numbers did appear on some maps (such as the 1946 map at right, which we will examine in Part 29), quite unlike the Oregon Highway system or the Californian Legislative Route Numbers which were nearly totally internal. Regardless, they are now obsolete.