In the late 1800s, Calgary was a small town at the confluence of the Elbow and
Bow Rivers. A lightly travelled road led away from the town to the southwest, following the alignment of present-day Richmond Road. In the early 20th century it was called South Morley Road before being renamed to Richmond Road, and eventually led west to
Springbank, Alberta remaining north of the Elbow River. A spur from the road at 101 Street SW proceeding due south across the river had been constructed by the mid‑1920s, known as Bragg Creek Road. South of the river, it veered west following the present day alignment of Highway 8 to its current terminus, where it turned south to
Bragg Creek on the alignment of present-day Highway 22. The first use of Highway 8 was as a small connector route that connected Calgary with the town of
Bowness. Highway 8 began at 10 Street NW, which at the time was part of
Highway 1 which passed through
Downtown Calgary, crossed the Bow River along the
Louise Bridge, and proceeded north and west towards
Cochrane and
Banff. Highway 8 travelled west on Kensington Road and Parkdale Boulevard along the north side of the Bow River, becoming Bowness Road when it entered the village of
Montgomery. It crossed the original Shouldice Bridge (renamed the John Hextal Bridge) into Bowness and ended near
Bowness Park. The highway was decommissioned in when Montgomery and Bowness were annexed by the City of Calgary. In the mid 1970s, Alberta introduced its Secondary Highway system (present day 500-900 series highways), and Richmond Road west of Calgary was designated as
Secondary Highway 559, but was renumbered in 1979 to Highway 8. Highway 8 first followed Richmond Road into Calgary to Sarcee Trail, and followed Sarcee Trail and Glenmore Trail as an unsigned highway to Deerfoot Trail. When the residential community of
Signal Hill was developed in the late 1980s and Highway 8 was realigned in 1992 to the south along a new two lane roadway which also served as a western extension of Glenmore Trail. Despite it being part of Glenmore Trail, the new roadway ended a
T-intersection at the transition between the existing Sarcee and Glenmore Trails; resulting in "Glenmore Trail" commonly referring to the roadway east of Sarcee Trail and "Highway 8" referring to the roadway west of Sarcee Trail, despite both officially sharing the same designations. When the Calgary Ring Road alignment was established, it was determined that the West Leg and Southwest Leg would follow and area just east of 101 Street SW from Highway 1 south to Highway 8, travel east on Highway 8 to Sarcee Trail, and then resume heading south through the eastern perimeter of the
Tsuutʼina Nation – as part of the construction the effected area of Highway 8 would become part of
Stoney Trail. On October 1, 2020, upgrades to Highway 8 and the stack interchange were opened and the highway inside the ring road was redesigned as Highway 201. As part of the Southwest Ring Road construction, approximately Highway 8 was twinned west of Calgary city limits, while a new
Y-interchange at the eastern terminus of Highway 8 was scheduled to be completed in 2024 as part of the West Ring Road. This project opened on December 19, 2023, ten months ahead of originally scheduled. ==Future==