Your route crosses the Rio Grande here, on the international bridge linking El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. Locals also call it the Paso del Norte Bridge, Santa Fe Street Bridge, Puente Benito Juárez, Puente Paso del Norte, or Puente Juárez-Santa Fe. The bridge was constructed in 1967, renovated in 1991, and expanded again in 2009.
Its history includes a stark chapter in 2019: on March 26, dozens of illegal immigrants were captured by United States Customs and Border Protection agents; with insufficient space in local holding facilities, agents erected chainlink fencing and concertina wire beneath the bridge to construct a "transitional shelter" to detain them. By March 30, hundreds were sleeping on dirt and rocks with mylar blankets, portable toilets, and plastic portable sinks. By mid-June conditions had worsened, with between 100 and 150 detainees reporting most had been held for over a month, without being allowed to bathe or change clothing, in temperatures exceeding 100 °F (38 °C).
Beneath your feet the span still carries that weight of history, reaching across the Rio Grande toward Ciudad Juárez and the border you are straddling.