El Toro Y
| El Toro "Y" | |
|---|---|
| El Toro Interchange, The "Y" | |
Aerial view of the El Toro Y | |
| Location | |
| Irvine, California | |
| Coordinates | 33°38′41″N 117°44′07″W / 33.6446°N 117.7353°W |
| Roads at junction | I-5 I-405 |
| Construction | |
| Maintained by | Caltrans |
The El Toro "Y" is a freeway interchange in Irvine, California where the Santa Ana Freeway, Interstate 5 (I-5), and the San Diego Freeway (at that point the I-405) merge. South of the El Toro Y, the highway is named the "San Diego Freeway" with the highway designation "I-5." Located in south Orange County, the interchange was named after the nearby 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.
The "Y" was where American broadcast reporter Zoey Tur of KCBS-TV, via news helicopter, first located and broadcast O.J. Simpson's white Ford Bronco slow-speed police chase exclusively for 22 minutes on June 17, 1994. In the cleft of the "Y" lies the Irvine Spectrum Center.