The interchange also contains Metro C Line tracks, direct HOV and Metro ExpressLanes connectors, the Harbor Transitway, and the Harbor Freeway station for the C Line and the Transitway, all of which contribute to the towering, imposing structure for which the interchange is known.

Opened with Interstate 105 in 1993, the interchange is named after Harry Pregerson, a longtime federal judge who presided over the lawsuit concerning the I-105 freeway's construction.

As described in a 1989 Los Angeles Times article, the interchange, connecting the existing I-110 with the new I-105 (then called the Century Freeway), was designed to be "biggest, tallest, most costly traffic structure yet built by California Department of Transportation" and "the first time the state's traffic engineers have integrated three modes of transportation--light-rail trains, high-occupancy vehicles and individual cars--into one giant intersection".

The award recognized the interchange's design, which sought to improve traffic congestion, safety, and air quality.

The highway section the bus jumped over is the directional ramp from I-105 WB to I-110 NB (not the fifth level HOV ramp from I-110 SB to I-105 WB as commonly believed),[5] and as the flyover was already constructed, a gap was added in the editing process using computer-generated imagery with the help of Sony Pictures Imageworks.