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is a city in Douglas County, Washington, United States along the northern banks of the Columbia River. As of April 2008, the City's population was 11,570. Washington Office Financial Management.
On November 20, 2008, East Wenatchee was designated a principal city of the Wenatchee–East Wenatchee Metropolitan Statistical Area by the Office of Management and Budget.
The earliest, known residents of the East Wenatchee area were Native Americans; the Richey Clovis Cache discovered in 1987 in a local orchard places humans in East Wenatchee 11,250 years ago.
At the turn of the 20th Century, irrigation projects, including the Columbia Basin Project east of the region, opened the door for farming the barren land. Orchards become the area’s leading industry.
In 1908, the first highway bridge to span the Columbia River opened. The privately owned bridge carried people, horses, wagons, and a rare motorcar, and also water in two large pipelines along its sides. It connected Chelan County on the Wenatchee shore with Douglas County on East Wenatchee shore. The bridge opened East Wenatchee and the rest of Douglas County to apple orchard development. Still standing today, the bridge is a pinconnected steel cantilever bridge and cost $177,000 to build. It once carried Sunset Highway (State Highway 2) across the river.
The bridge was the brainchild of W. T. Clark, one of the builders of the Highline Canal, a major irrigation project to water the apple orchards in the valley. It was financed in part by James J. Hill (1838-1916), of the Great Northern Railway (which arrived in Wenatchee in 1892). In its second year of operation the canal firm that owned it decided to start charging tolls.
This prompted local leaders to hasten to the state legislature to persuade the state to purchase the bridge as part of the state highway system. The state purchased the bridge despite the state-employed consultant's opinion "that the ugliness of the structure is very apparent" (Dorpat), despite defects in the timber floor and concrete piers, and despite leaks in the waterpipes.
The structure remained in full use until 1950 when a new bridge was built. Today, it remains as a footbridge and still carries water to the apple trees of East Wenatchee.
From its foundation in agriculture, the region’s economy has diversified to include year-round tourism and a variety of other industries.