page_title: Interstate 15
section_title: California
hierarchical_section_title: Interstate 15 / Route description / California
caption_attribution_description: Photo of Ivanpah Valley seen from Interstate 15 in California/Nevada Northbound, I-15 makes a steep descent from Mountain Pass into the Ivanpah Valley. In the middle distance, the casinos of Primm straddle the freeway right at the Nevada border, while those of Jean are further off, to the left; Las Vegas is immediately on the far side of the hills on the horizon.
context_page_description: Interstate 15 is a major Interstate Highway in the western United States, running through Southern California and the Intermountain West. I-15 begins near the Mexico–US border in San Diego County and stretches north to Alberta, Canada, passing through the states of California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, and Montana. The Interstate serves the cities of San Diego, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Idaho Falls, and Great Falls. It also passes close to the urban areas of Orange County and Los Angeles County, California. The stretches of I-15 in Idaho, Utah, and Arizona have been designated as the "Veterans Memorial Highway". The southern end is at a junction with I-8 and State Route 15 in San Diego, and the northern end is at a connection with Alberta Highway 4 at the Sweetgrass–Coutts Border Crossing.
  I-15 was built to connect the Inland Empire with San Diego in California, facilitate tourism access to Las Vegas, provide access to the Arizona Strip, interconnect all of the metropolitan statistical areas in Utah except for Logan, and provide freeway bypasses for Pocatello, Idaho Falls, and Great Falls. Since its creation, I-15 has served as a long-haul route for North American commerce.
context_section_description: North of its junction with State Route 91 in Corona, the route roughly follows the former routes of State Route 31. North of Devore, the highway follows the approximate alignment of historic U.S. Highway 66 along with U.S. Highway 91 and U.S. Highway 395. U.S. 395 breaks away at Hesperia and the route continues on a direct path to Barstow 35 miles (56 km) to the north. Meanwhile, the old alignments of U.S. 91 and U.S. 66 follow the Mojave River from Victorville to Barstow along the National Trails Highway. At that point, I-15 follows the old route of U.S. 91 exclusively as U.S. 66 turned east toward Needles. For many parts of the highway, high-voltage power lines, such as Path 46 and Path 27, almost all originating from the Hoover Dam, follow the freeway. Many of these link distant power stations to the Los Angeles metropolitan area.
  The southern starting point of Interstate 15 was in 1957 planned to be in San Bernardino, at the interchange with the San Bernardino Freeway (then US 70/99, now I-10). This was logical as I-15 was following the old alignment of the historic Route 66 which passed through San Bernardino. The segment was completed accordingly.
  In 1964, legislation was later passed to extend the interstate to San Diego. Instead of extending the existing freeway from the I-10 interchange south, however, the California Department of Transportation drew a new segment in Devore that "branched" off of the original alignment and bypassed San Bernardino altogether. This segment's alignment is generally northeast to southwest for about 13 miles (21 km). Then, in Rancho Cucamonga, its directional alignment shifts to north–south where it eventually meets with Interstate 10 (about 15 miles (24 km) west of the original interchange in San Bernardino). The segment that had been built from Devore to San Bernardino was retained as an interstate, but was re-numbered as Interstate 215. Note that during the construction of I-15's present alignment, and for some time afterwards, I-215 was numbered as I-15E, and its actual mileage would begin at Interstate 10. I-15 runs for a total of 287 miles (462 km) in California.
caption: Northbound I-15 makes a steep descent from the Mountain Pass into the Ivanpah Valley
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