SR 3 follows the route of a paved section of State Road 21 between Belfair and Port Gamble on the Kitsap Peninsula that was added to the state highway system in 1915. The highway was later split between the Navy Yard Highway from Belfair to Bremerton and State Road 21 from Bremerton to Port Gamble in 1919. In 1923, the state highway system was restructured and the Navy Yard Highway was numbered as State Road 14, while State Road 21 kept its designation. The Navy Yard Highway was paved on a section connecting Union to Charleston and was dedicated by Naval Station Bremerton on June 13, 1923, while the rest of the highway remained a gravel road into the 1930s.