From the Island County Historic Roads Report, 2014:
"As engineered structures, historic roads represent the sinews that bind communities together across the countryside and through the generations. They can have significance on the local, state, and national levels for their historical values and associations. For these reasons, historic roads can be historic properties eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. Of necessity, however, roads change as transportation needs change over time. The principle modifications and alterations to, or abandonment of historic roads include realignment and replacement either through single, planned transportation projects or through the cumulative impacts of multiple improvements and maintenance activities over time. The preservation challenge is how to manage historic properties that undergo constant modification while also protecting the characteristics that make them historically significant. To do so requires knowing what makes a road historically significant and thus worthy of preserving; and, considering historically important roads within the context of modern road design."