The highway originally followed Fourth Plain Boulevard, a local road built in the 1820s by fur traders and later extended east to Camas in the 1920s.

[5][6] SR 500 continues northeast and travels through a pair of single-point urban interchanges with Andresen Road and Thurston Way, the latter serving the Vancouver Mall complex on the north side of the highway.

[1] The parkway travels east across several suburban subdivisions and ends after merging with Ward Road, from which SR 500 turns south onto 162nd Avenue.

[5][4] The highway remains on 162nd Avenue until an intersection with Fourth Plain Boulevard, which SR 500 follows east into rural and unincorporated Clark County.

Near the city's paper mill, SR 500 leaves downtown and crosses over the Washougal River, following a section of the BNSF Railway to Parker's Landing.

[12] A series of country roads connecting the eastern outskirts of Fourth Plain with Camas were built by the 1920s to serve farmers, miners, and the military on the way to Camp Bonneville.

[13][14] The SR 500 designation replaced SSH 8A in the 1964 state highway renumbering and initially traveled through Vancouver on Fourth Plain Boulevard.

[13] The expressway section of SR 500 was constructed in the 1970s and 1980s to relieve the congested Fourth Plain Boulevard, but full interchanges were deferred due to budget issues.

[18][19] The county government requested that SR 500 be designated the Henry M. Jackson Parkway in honor of the late Washington senator, but were denied by WSDOT.

[16][22] A single point urban interchange at Thurston Way near the Vancouver Mall was prioritized and used to test a design–build contract system, which was expected to save a year of planning and bidding time but cost $3 million more, and was completed in October 2002.

[32][33] SR 500 was re-aligned onto a section of Padden Parkway and Northeast 162nd Avenue in February 2005 by an action of the Washington State Transportation Commission, allowing Fourth Plain Boulevard to be transferred to county and city control.

[44] Long-range plans proposed by WSDOT and the county government call for the remainder of SR 500 between Orchards and Camas to be upgraded to freeway standards.