The highway travels east-west on the north side of the Columbia River, opposite Interstate 84 (I-84) to the south in Oregon.

SR 14 forms a section of the Lewis and Clark Trail Scenic Byway and begins at an interchange with I-5 in Vancouver.

SR 14 continues east as a two-lane highway through Clark, Skamania, Klickitat, and Benton counties before it ends at an interchange with I-82 and U.S. Route 395 (US 395) near Plymouth.

PSH 8 was added to the state highway system in 1905 as a short road along the Columbia River between Washougal and Lyle and was extended westwards to Vancouver and eastwards to Maryhill by 1913.

[3][4][5] The four-lane freeway travels eastward, between the Columbia River and the Seattle Subdivision of the BNSF Northern Transcon route to the south and Pearson Field to the north,[6][7] and intersects Southeast Columbia Way in a single-point urban interchange, providing access to the Vancouver National Historic Reserve Historic District.

SR 14 leaves the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area west of Maryhill, where the highway intersects its spur route and US 97, forming a short concurrency with the latter.

[44] A section of the winding PSH 8 between Maryhill and Roosevelt was replaced with a new highway running along the north bank of the river in June 1964.

[2][50] The concurrency with US 197 was removed by WSDOT in 1980,[51] but was not recognized by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials until their general meeting in September 2006.

It was built as part of the Confluence Project, following the route of an ancient Native American trail while also providing access to the Columbia River waterfront from Fort Vancouver.