East Wenatchee is a city in Douglas County, Washington, United States, along the northern banks of the Columbia River. The population at the 2010 census was 13,190, a 129.1% increase on the 2000 census. As of April 1, 2015, the Office of Financial Management estimates that the current population is 13,659.On November 10, 2002, East Wenatchee was designated a principal city of the Wenatchee−East Wenatchee Metropolitan Statistical Area by the Office of Management and Budget.HistoryAt the turn of the 20th Century irrigation projects, including the Columbia Basin Project east of the region, fostered the development of intensive agriculture in the shrub-steppe native to the region. Fruit orchards become one of the area's leading industries.In 1908, the first highway bridge to span the Columbia River opened. The privately owned bridge carried people, horses, wagons, and automobiles; it also supported two large water 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 1060ft pin-connected 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.