Your gateway north crosses the United States–Mexico border, tying El Paso, Texas to Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. This is one of the busiest crossings between the two countries: more than 10 million people enter the U.S. from Mexico here each year. The PDN sits at the Paso del Norte International Bridge and handles northbound non-commercial traffic; pedestrians, however, may also cross the bridge in the southbound direction.
Bridges at this spot have spanned the river for over 250 years, rebuilt many times after floods, expansion, and international treaties. Locals sometimes still call this the Santa Fe bridge because the predecessor structure, prior to 1967, emptied traffic onto Santa Fe Street just to the west. To your side an adjacent rail bridge brings roughly 2,000 trains into the United States each year.
Streetcars once rode across this crossing too, a service that ended in 1974. In pedestrian numbers, the PDN ranks second only to the San Ysidro Port of Entry. Picture the bridge, Santa Fe Street to the west, and the rail line that still carries about two thousand trains across each year.