The Santa Ana Freeway is one of the principal
freeway
A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms ...
s in
Southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban ...
, connecting
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...
and its southeastern suburbs including the freeway's namesake, the city of
Santa Ana. The freeway begins at its junction with the
San Diego Freeway The San Diego Freeway is one of the named principal Southern California freeways. It consists of the following two segments:
* Interstate 5, from California State Route 94 in San Diego to Interstate 405 (El Toro Y) in Irvine
* Interstate 405, in ...
(
Interstate 405, I-405), called the
El Toro Y, in
Irvine, signed as
I-5. From there, it generally goes southeast to northwest to the
East Los Angeles Interchange
The East Los Angeles Interchange is an interchange complex located in Boyle Heights, California, approximately 2.5 miles (4 km) east of Downtown Los Angeles. With its southern portion handling over 550,000 vehicles per day (2008 AADT), it is the ...
, where it takes the designation of
U.S. Route 101
U.S. Route 101, or U.S. Highway 101 (US 101), is a north–south United States Numbered Highway that runs through the states of California, Oregon, and Washington, on the West Coast of the United States. It is also known as (The Royal Roa ...
(US 101). It then proceeds northwest to the
Four Level Interchange (also known as the
Bill Keene Memorial Interchange) in downtown Los Angeles. Formerly, the entirety of the route was marked as US 101 until the
1964 highway renumbering, which truncated US 101 to the East Los Angeles Interchange and designated the rest of the freeway as I-5.
North of the East Los Angeles Interchange complex, I-5 follows the
Golden State Freeway
Interstate 5 (I-5) is a major north–south route of the Interstate Highway System in the United States, stretching from the Mexican border at the San Ysidro crossing to the Canadian border near Blaine, Washington. The segment of I-5 in ...
. South of the El Toro Y, I-5 takes on the
San Diego Freeway The San Diego Freeway is one of the named principal Southern California freeways. It consists of the following two segments:
* Interstate 5, from California State Route 94 in San Diego to Interstate 405 (El Toro Y) in Irvine
* Interstate 405, in ...
name from I-405.
An abundance of landmarks, most importantly
Disneyland
Disneyland is a theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney initially envisio ...
and
Angel Stadium of Anaheim
Angel Stadium of Anaheim is a baseball stadium located in Anaheim, California. Since its opening in 1966, it has served as the home ballpark of the Los Angeles Angels of Major League Baseball (MLB), and was also the home stadium to the Los Ange ...
, along the Orange County portion of its route combines with a severe bottleneck beginning at the Los Angeles County line (shrinking from 10 to 6 lanes) to make it one of the most congested freeways in Southern California. The infamously busy intersection of the Santa Ana,
Garden Grove, and
Orange freeways in southwestern
Orange is nicknamed the
Orange Crush.
The freeway is officially defined as Routes 101 and 5 from Route 110 (
Four Level Interchange) to Route 405.
History
The Santa Ana Freeway is a bypass of the original state highway from Los Angeles to Santa Ana, which passed through
Whittier and mostly became
SR 72 in the
1964 renumbering. Southeast of Santa Ana, this earlier highway, added to the state highway system in 1910 as
Route 2
The following highways are numbered 2. For roads numbered A2, see list of A2 roads. For roads numbered B2, see list of B2 roads. For roads numbered M2, see list of M2 roads. For roads numbered N2, see list of N2 roads.
International
* AH2, As ...
, generally followed the present freeway from
Tustin past
East Irvine to
El Toro. This route was marked as part of
US 101 in 1928.
In 1933, the state legislature added a number of routes to the state highway system, including two that later formed parts of the Santa Ana Freeway. Route 166 began at the new
Route 172 (now
SR 60), at the corner of Indiana and Third Streets, and headed south on Indiana Street and east and southeast on Mines Avenue (
Olympic Boulevard) and Anaheim-Telegraph Road (now Telegraph Road) to
Route 171 (now
SR 39) at the intersection with Los Nietos Road near
Santa Fe Springs.
Route 174 began at
Route 60 (then signed Alternate U. S. 101 now
SR 1) in what now is known as
Westchester and followed
Manchester Avenue
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The two ...
and
Firestone Boulevard Firestone may refer to:
*Flint or firestone
* Firestone (surname)
Places
* Firestone District, Margibi County, Liberia
* Firestone (Phoenix, Arizona), a listing on the National Register of Historic Places in Phoenix, Arizona, US
* Firestone, Colo ...
(then under construction alongside the
Southern Pacific Railroad
The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...
's
Santa Ana Branch) to Route 2 (then Los Angeles Street, now Anaheim Boulevard) in southern
Anaheim
Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the 10th-most ...
. A second piece began further southeast on Route 2, where it turned east on Chapman Avenue, and followed the shorter Santa Ana Boulevard diagonally to Route 2 (Main Street) in northern
Santa Ana. In 1934, Route 166, except on Indiana Street, was marked as part of
Sign Route 6 (which continued along Route 171 to
Buena Park), and the entire length of Route 174 became
Sign Route 10. (SR 6 was renumbered to
SR 26 in 1937, when
US 6
U.S. Route 6 (US 6), also called the Grand Army of the Republic Highway, honoring the American Civil War veterans association, is a main route of the U.S. Highway system. While it currently runs east-northeast from Bishop, California, to ...
entered California;
[Richard F. Weingroff]
U.S. 6: The Grand Army of the Republic Highway
/ref> SR 10 was soon truncated to Anaheim Boulevard, as US 101 had moved from Route 2 to the shorter Route 174 in Santa Ana.)
A U.S. Route 101 Bypass was created by 1941, beginning at the intersection of Routes 166 (Indiana Street, soon moved to Downey Road) and 2 (US 101 along Whittier Boulevard), and following Routes 166 and 174 to Route 2 (US 101) in Anaheim. The connection between Routes 166 and 174 was made via Route 168 (Rosemead Boulevard, then and now SR 19). This resulted in SR 10 being truncated further, to the intersection of Firestone and Rosemead Boulevards, though SR 26 continued to extend east on Routes 166 and 171 to Buena Park.
A freeway connecting downtown Los Angeles with Orange County was planned by 1939, and was included in ''A Transit Program for the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area'', published that year by the Metropolitan Transportation Engineering Board. To allow for its construction by the state, the definition of Route 166 was modified in 1941, changing the southeast end to Route 174 near Norwalk; at the same time, the northernmost piece was changed from Indiana Street to Downey Road.
The entire Santa Ana Freeway began construction in 1947 and completed in 1956. Originally it was signed as US 101 before the segment of 101 between the East Los Angeles Interchange and the United States–Mexico border
United may refer to:
Places
* United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community
* United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community
Arts and entertainment Films
* ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film
* ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two fi ...
in San Ysidro, California was decommissioned in favor of Interstate 5
Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels through the states of Californi ...
. It was approved as a chargeable interstate in 1961. The Santa Ana Freeway and also portions of San Diego Freeway The San Diego Freeway is one of the named principal Southern California freeways. It consists of the following two segments:
* Interstate 5, from California State Route 94 in San Diego to Interstate 405 (El Toro Y) in Irvine
* Interstate 405, in ...
(before the freeway was built) south of El Toro Y went up changing the U.S. 101 signs to Interstate 5
Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels through the states of Californi ...
in 1964, including full length of Golden State Freeway
Interstate 5 (I-5) is a major north–south route of the Interstate Highway System in the United States, stretching from the Mexican border at the San Ysidro crossing to the Canadian border near Blaine, Washington. The segment of I-5 in ...
which was originally signed as US 99.
Former Interstate 105
From 1964 to 1968, the I-105 designation was used on a stretch of road linking I-5/I-10, US 101, and SR 10 (former I-110) north of downtown Los Angeles, now known as the East Los Angeles Interchange. In 1968, this I-105 was decommissioned, and that portion of the Santa Ana Freeway was folded into US 101.
Exit list
See also
*
References
External links
{{3di, 5
Interstate 5
U.S. Route 101
Named freeways in California
Roads in Orange County, California
Southern California freeways