El Toro Y
December 22, 2022
The El Toro “Y” is a freeway interchange in southern Orange County, California where the Santa Ana Freeway, Interstate 5 (I-5), and the San Diego Freeway, the I-405 merge. South of that point, it retains the name “San Diego Freeway” but with the highway designation “I-5.” Located in south Orange County where the cities of Lake Forest, Laguna Hills, and Irvine converge, the interchange was named after the city (El Toro – now Lake Forest) and the now closed Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, located northeast of the interchange. The “Y” is one of the busiest interchanges in the world; from 1975 to 2002, daily traffic surged from 102,000 to 356,000 vehicles a day.
