Pan-American Highway, National Geographic Book: Crossing Back into Mexico

Hispanic man, child and others walk from a sunny blue sky street down a stairway into dark shadows

Pedestrians heading south walking down stairs to use an underground walkway to International Bridge #1 connecting Nuevo Laredo and Laredo, Texas. The bridge links two countries, Mexico and the United States, where cultural exchange is blurred, and yet families are divided with members living on separate sides. Every year five million people walk across the bridge daily to work, and to buy supplies. The interdependence is obvious as Mexicans lug shopping cats of dog food, pampers tired from a long day at work and Americans in cowboy hats cross back carrying piñatas after a stop at a pharmacy stocking up on cheaper drugs.Four international bridges link Texas and Mexico at Laredo, with an average of 11,000 trucks crossing the border daily on those bridges.Besides, commerce, the bridges over the Rio Grande River between Laredo and Nuevo Laredo also connect families who have relatives on both sides of the border.