Interstate 5 in California

Interstate 5
Interstate 5
	I-5 highlighted in red
Route information
	Maintained by Caltrans
Length	796.77 mi (1,282.28 km)
History	Completed October 12, 1979
Tourist; routes	Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway; West Side Freeway from SR 152 near Santa Nella to I-580 near Tracy;
NHS	Entire route
Major junctions
South end	Fed. 1 / Fed. 1D at the Mexican border in San Diego
	SR 15 in San Diego; I-8 in San Diego; I-405 in Irvine; I-10 / US 101 / SR 60 in Los Angeles; SR 134 in Los Angeles; SR 99 near Wheeler Ridge; I-580 near Tracy; US 50 / I-80 BL in Sacramento; I-80 in Sacramento; US 97 in Weed;
North end	I-5 at the Oregon state line south of Ashland, OR
Location
Country	United States
State	California
Counties	San Diego, Orange, Los Angeles, Kern, Kings, Fresno, Merced, Stanislaus, San Joaquin, Sacramento, Yolo, Colusa, Glenn, Tehama, Shasta, Siskiyou
Highway system
	Interstate Highway System; Main; Auxiliary; Suffixed; Business; Future; State highways in California; Interstate; US; State; Scenic; History; Pre‑1964; Unconstructed; Deleted; Freeways;

Interstate 5 (I-5) is a major north–south route of the Interstate Highway System in the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific Coast between the Mexican border and the Canadian border. The segment of I-5 in California runs across the length of the state from the Mexican border at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in the San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego to the Oregon state line south of the Medford-Ashland metropolitan area. It is the longest interstate in California at 796.77 miles (1,282.28 km),^[1] and accounts for more than half of I-5's total length of 1,381.29 miles (2,222.97 km).^[2] It is also the second longest stretch of Interstate Highway (and the longest for a north-south Interstate) with a single designation within a single state after I-10 in Texas.

It is the more important and most-used of the two major north–south routes on the Pacific Coast, the other being U.S. Route 101 (US 101), which is primarily coastal. I-5 links the major California cities of San Diego, Santa Ana, Los Angeles, Stockton, Sacramento, and Redding. The San Francisco Bay Area is about 80 miles (130 km) west of the highway.

I-5 is known colloquially as "the 5" to Southern California residents and "5" to Northern California residents due to varieties in California English. I-5 also has several named portions: the John J. Montgomery Freeway, San Diego Freeway, Santa Ana Freeway, Golden State Freeway, and West Side Freeway.^[3]

^ ^a ^b Cite error: The named reference trucklist was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Staff (December 31, 2021). "Table 1: Main Routes of the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System Of Interstate and Defense Highways as of December 31, 2011". Federal Highway Administration. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
^ Rhodes, W.T. (January–February 1951). "Montgomery Freeway". California Highways: 34–35.

[trucklist-1] Cite error: The named reference trucklist was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[2] Staff (December 31, 2021). "Table 1: Main Routes of the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System Of Interstate and Defense Highways as of December 31, 2011". Federal Highway Administration. Retrieved October 22, 2022.

[3] Rhodes, W.T. (January–February 1951). "Montgomery Freeway". California Highways: 34–35.

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