In December 1913 William R. Roy becomes Washington's fifth Highway Commissioner. He will preside over the Highway Department until March 1916.
Governor Ernest Lister appointed Roy to replace William Roberts. During Roy's tenure, the Highway Department worked on constructing portions of the seven primary state roads -- Central Washington Highway, Inland Empire Highway, McClellan Pass Highway, National Park Highway, Olympic Highway, Pacific Highway, and Sunset Highway -- and 14 secondary state roads designated by the 1913 Legislature. Construction work also proceeded on a number of bridges, including those spanning the Lewis and Skagit rivers.
One of the primary achievements under Roy was completion of the section of Sunset Highway (the primary east-west trunk highway, much of it more or less along the route now followed by Interstate 90) over Snoqualmie Pass. Governor Lister presided at a July 1, 1915, dedication at the pass to celebrate the state's first passable road across the Cascade Mountains.
Roy served until March 1916, when he was replaced by James Allen.
Sources:
Paul Dorpat and Genevieve McCoy, Building Washington (Seattle: Tartu Publications, 1998), 82-83; Report of the State Highway Department for the Period October 1, 1912, to October 1, 1914 (Olympia, 1914), 26-78; "Forty Years With the Washington Department of Highways," p. 7. Washington State Department of Transportation website accessed October 11, 2004 (http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/research/History/40years.htm).
Licensing: This essay is licensed under a Creative Commons license that
encourages reproduction with attribution. Credit should be given to both
HistoryLink.org and to the author, and sources must be included with any
reproduction. Click the icon for more info. Please note that this
Creative Commons license applies to text only, and not to images. For
more information regarding individual photos or images, please contact
the source noted in the image credit.
Major Support for HistoryLink.org Provided
By:
The State of Washington | Patsy Bullitt Collins
| Paul G. Allen Family Foundation | Museum Of History & Industry
| 4Culture (King County Lodging Tax Revenue) | City of Seattle
| City of Bellevue | City of Tacoma | King County | The Peach
Foundation | Microsoft Corporation, Other Public and Private
Sponsors and Visitors Like You