[6] In the early part of the 20th century, residents in nearby Ellensburg needed a more direct route when traveling east.

After several cars (some with occupants still in them) were lost overboard, the state highway department decided to construct a bridge over the Columbia.

The construction of the bridge required workers to enter pressurized caissons seventy feet (21 m) under the riverbed via airlocks.

The original was dismantled and moved to the crossing at Lyons Ferry, where it stands today as the oldest (97–98 years) extant steel cantilever bridge in Washington, and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

With completion of the Wanapum Dam in the early 1960s, the townsite was relocated further up the hill above the rising water to the current location.

The Wild Horse Wind Farm, owned by Puget Sound Energy, is located on ridge tops near Vantage.

[9] Vantage is known for Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park and its associated Wanapum Recreational Area, as a base camp for those attending nearby Gorge Amphitheatre, and its rock climbing.

[10] Rock climbing is one of the area's more popular forms of outdoor recreation and mostly takes place in "Echo Basin" (often mistaken for "Frenchman Coulee" which is the basin just north of Echo, on the other side of the Old Vantage Highway) on the basalt columns typical to the desert rimrock in the area.

Today the area holds over 400 established routes (both traditionally protected and bolted) ranging in difficulty from 5.0-5.13c, and sees visitors almost year-round.