The present route of SR 16 roughly follows the route of several state highways signed during the 20th century, the first of which was State Road 14. State Road 14 traveled north from Shelton to Gorst and south into Gig Harbor as the primary connector between the Olympic and Kitsap peninsulas. State Road 14 was re-designated in 1937 as PSH 14 and included a secondary highway named SSH 14C that traveled from Gig Harbor to the Tacoma Narrows, site of an under-construction suspension bridge to open in 1940. PSH 14 was extended southeast over SSH 14C and the unfinished Tacoma Narrows Bridge into the city of Tacoma as part of a transfer of bridge ownership to the state of Washington in 1939. After the collapse of the original bridge on November 7, 1940, PSH 14 was truncated to Gig Harbor and traffic was redirected to a ferry landing in Manchester. The second Tacoma Narrows Bridge was opened on October 14, 1950, and PSH 14 was extended the following year to an intersection with U.S. Route 99 (US 99) in Downtown Tacoma.