Interstate 405 (California)

Interstate 405, colloquially referred to as The 405 (the four-oh-five), is one of the principal north-south highways in Southern California, and the major bypass of I-5 running through Southern California. The entire 405 is part of the "San Diego Freeway" despite ending about 75 miles from downtown San Diego. Interstate 405 is a heavily traveled thoroughfare by commuters and freight haulers along its entire length and has earned its place as one of the busiest and most congested freeways in the world. It has played a crucial role in the development of dozens of cities and suburbs along its route through the Greater Los Angeles area.

Route description

The San Diego Freeway splits away from the Golden State Freeway in the Mission Hills district of Los Angeles (Exits 73/158), becoming Interstate 405. From the northern San Fernando Valley it heads straight south toward the Santa Monica Mountains. After crossing over the Sepulveda Pass, its route roughly follows the outline of the Pacific coast varying between five and ten miles inland. It crosses the Los Angeles/Orange county line in Long Beach, then continues southeast through Orange County. It is joined by the Santa Ana Freeway in southeastern Irvine at the massive El Toro Y interchange, below which it merges back into Interstate 5 (at Exit 94).

The San Diego Freeway's congestion problems are legendary, leading to the joke that the Interstate was named 405 because traffic moves at "four or five" miles an hour. Indeed, average speeds as low as five miles per hour are routinely recorded during morning and afternoon commutes, and its interchanges with the Ventura Freeway (milepost 63) and with the Santa Monica Freeway (milepost 53) each consistently rank among the five most congested freeway interchanges in the United States. Commuters are known to despise the freeway: Steve Harvey of the Los Angeles Times once featured a personalized license plate with the text HATE405 in his column. While much of this gridlock has to do with the lack of alternate routes between many of the areas it connects -- some of which, such as the Pacific Coast and Laurel Canyon freeways, were proposed but abandoned for political reasons -- the freeway would likely be busy even with the addition of other roads and mass transit solutions, as it connects so many important Greater Los Angeles area locations.

History

Interstate 405 was approved as a chargeable interstate in 1955. The earliest section of I-405 south of Golden State Freeway was opened in 1957 signed as SR-7. I-405 section west of Interstate 605 (Los Alamitos Curve Interchange) was done before 1965, and the newest section south of the Orange and Los Angeles county line was done in 1969.

Points of interest along the 405

Transportation

• LAX
• Long Beach Municipal Airport
• John Wayne Airport
• Port of Los Angeles
• Port of Long Beach

Commerce/Recreation

• Century City high-rise office park
• Marina del Rey
• More than ten California state beaches, as well as many owned by counties and municipalities, and many tourist-heavy beach cities

Education and cultural

• California State University, Northridge
• The J. Paul Getty Center
• The Skirball Cultural Center
• University of California, Los Angeles
• Loyola Marymount University
• California State University, Dominguez Hills
• California State University, Long Beach
• University of California, Irvine

Control cities

• Sacramento (northbound only, between CA-90 and the northern I-5 interchange)
• Santa Monica
• Long Beach
• San Diego (southbound only, between I-710 and El Toro Y)

Communities served

Communities along Interstate 405 include

• Bel-Air
• Brentwood
• Carson
• Costa Mesa
• Culver City
• Del Aire
• Fountain Valley
• Garden Grove
• Harbor Gateway
• Hawthorne
• Huntington Beach
• Inglewood
• Irvine
• Ladera Heights
• Laguna Hills
• Laguna Woods
• Lake Forest
• Lawndale
• Long Beach
• Mar Vista
• Mission Hills
• North Hills
• Palms
• Panorama City
• Sawtelle
• Seal Beach
• Sherman Oaks
• Signal Hill
• Torrance
• Van Nuys
• Westchester
• West Los Angeles
• Westminster
• Westwood

Trivia and References

The O.J. Simpson chase

While dangerous high-speed chases along the San Diego Freeway are not uncommon, perhaps the most famous chase in its history was also one of the slowest. On the afternoon of June 17, 1994, former football star O.J. Simpson, suspected in the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and waiter Ronald Goldman, took to the freeway in a white Ford Bronco (driven by former USC teammate Al Cowlings) with police in pursuit. A bizarre, widely-televised low-speed chase ensued and ended hours later when Simpson returned to his Brentwood estate via the Sunset Boulevard exit and surrendered to law enforcement.

Ennis Cosby Murder

Ennis Cosby, the only son of Bill Cosby, was murdered along I-405 in Los Angeles on January 16, 1997, while fixing a flat tire.

Other Notes

• I-405 was the subject of a 3-minute computer-generated movie called 405, produced in May 2000 by Bruce Branit and Jeremy Hunt. The movie depicted a DC-10 jet making an emergency landing on the freeway behind a driver.
• The band Death Cab for Cutie referenced the interstate in their song titled "405," though the reference is more likely to the Washington interstate of the same name.
• In November 2003, Amber Stachowski, a collegiate water polo player for the UCLA Bruins and member of the U.S. National Team was injured in a motor vehicle accident on Interstate 405. She sustained a concussion, which kept her out of the water for two months. Six months later, she qualified for the Olympic team, which won a bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. ^[2]
• Lazlo Bane's song I'm No Superman mentions "heading down the 405" on a journey to work.
• Lisa Marr's song 'In California' (as performed by Neko Case) refers to 'another suicide on the 405'

State law

Legal Definition of Route 405: California Streets and Highways Code, Chapter 2, Article 3, Section 615

Exit list

Postmiles are derived from^[1] and exit numbers derived from^[3].

References

1. ^ ^{a b} January 1, 2006 California Log of Bridges on State Highways
2. ^ USOC News: Amber battles back after car accident
3. ^ Cal-NExUS Interchange Exit Numbering

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