Washington State Route 17 Coulee City–Brewster branch of PSH 10 was codified in 1931 as a branch of State Road 10 and re-codified in 1937, during the creation of the primary and secondary state highways; however, the highway was not built between Sims Corner and Bridgeport until the 1950s. The Soap Lake–Coulee City branch of PSH 7 was established in 1937 to serve as an alternate route to SSH 2F, avoiding the Grand Coulee Dam. In 1951, the PSH 10 branch between Bridgeport and Brewster was moved north of the Columbia River via the newly built Columbia River Bridge on the present route of
Grand Coulee Dam Wenatchee. Together, they became known as the "Dam College". Woods began promoting the Grand Coulee Dam in his newspaper, often with articles written by O'Sullivan. The dam idea gained popularity with the public in 1918. Backers of reclamation in Central Washington split into two camps. The "pumpers" favored a dam with pumps to elevate water from the river into the Grand Coulee from which canals and pipes could irrigate farmland. The "ditchers" favored diverting water from northeast Washington's Pend Oreille River via a gravity canal to irrigate farmland in Central and Eastern Washington. Many locals such as Woods, O'Sullivan and