The Santa Ana Freeway is a freeway between Irvine and L.A. that consists of I-5 and US 101 between the El Toro Y and Four Level Interchange. However, before the 2nd half of 1964, US 101 was the entire alignment of the Santa Ana Freeway and the 1st 94 miles of the San Diego Freeway which it's route between the Mexican border and East L.A. Interchange was replaced by I-5.
I remember when this entire stretch of I-5, from the I-405 split in Irvine all the way to I-710 near downtown Los Angeles used to be only three lanes on each side. As bad as the traffic is now, it's nowhere near as bad as it was before they started widening that stretch of I-5 in Irvine and Tustin back in 1990 and '91.
Think about I-66 nearing Washington, DC, because I-66 has that kind of an alignment heading toward our nation's capital. There were times before it was reconstructed in the 90s that the I-5 in the Orange Crush Interchange could be jammed for up to 17 hours a day. When I went to Grad Night at Disneyland in 1991 (I went to high school at Sweetwater High in National City, CA), we took I-5 straight up, and I got a glimpse of the construction (and some interchange location changes and additions) starting in Irvine. Some had already taken place in Santa Ana, but at that time, from I-405 to CA-133 (they still had the old trumpet interchange at I-5 and CA-133) and the area from the Orange Crush Interchange to Disneyland was still the original six-lane configuration from the 1950s. It wasn't until the late 1990s that I-5 was widened in Anaheim and the CA-91 interchange, which used to be left exits, was recofigured to what you see today (the old left exits are basically now the HOV exits). I can even tell you, interchange-by-interchange, what the exits were back then on each side of I-5 from Irvine to Norwalk, including the old ones that were replaced and relocated. You'd be shocked at where some of the old exits were on each side of the freeway before the reconfiguration.
The Santa Ana Freeway is a freeway between Irvine and L.A. that consists of I-5 and US 101 between the El Toro Y and Four Level Interchange. However, before the 2nd half of 1964, US 101 was the entire alignment of the Santa Ana Freeway and the 1st 94 miles of the San Diego Freeway which it's route between the Mexican border and East L.A. Interchange was replaced by I-5.
12:59 Correction: US 101 ends north connecting I-5 in *Tumwater, WA* , the neighbor city of Washington's state capital, Olympia.
I make driving in OC and LA videos too! I love to be able to virtually road trip!
Wow some parts of I-5 and US-101 are as narrow as some expressways in Boston!
I remember when this entire stretch of I-5, from the I-405 split in Irvine all the way to I-710 near downtown Los Angeles used to be only three lanes on each side. As bad as the traffic is now, it's nowhere near as bad as it was before they started widening that stretch of I-5 in Irvine and Tustin back in 1990 and '91.
One can only imagine how that would be today...
Think about I-66 nearing Washington, DC, because I-66 has that kind of an alignment heading toward our nation's capital. There were times before it was reconstructed in the 90s that the I-5 in the Orange Crush Interchange could be jammed for up to 17 hours a day.
When I went to Grad Night at Disneyland in 1991 (I went to high school at Sweetwater High in National City, CA), we took I-5 straight up, and I got a glimpse of the construction (and some interchange location changes and additions) starting in Irvine. Some had already taken place in Santa Ana, but at that time, from I-405 to CA-133 (they still had the old trumpet interchange at I-5 and CA-133) and the area from the Orange Crush Interchange to Disneyland was still the original six-lane configuration from the 1950s. It wasn't until the late 1990s that I-5 was widened in Anaheim and the CA-91 interchange, which used to be left exits, was recofigured to what you see today (the old left exits are basically now the HOV exits).
I can even tell you, interchange-by-interchange, what the exits were back then on each side of I-5 from Irvine to Norwalk, including the old ones that were replaced and relocated. You'd be shocked at where some of the old exits were on each side of the freeway before the reconfiguration.