Getting Here, Getting Around

El Paso has long been a transportation hub. Starting as early as the 16th century, El Camino Real (“The Royal Road”), a busy trading route that connected Mexico City to Santa Fe, New Mexico, brought traffic to the El Paso region. Situated smack dab in the middle of El Camino Real, El Paso, which was officially founded in 1659, served as a halfway point along the route, where traders, conquistadors, politicos, and the Spanish army could rest and refuel. In modern history, El Paso’s air industry has often been at the forefront of technology. In 1968, El Paso International Airport was the first in the United States to install a 130-foot air traffic control tower; in 2000, it was the first airport in the country to begin utilizing the high-tech STARS radar system.

Despite its historic role as a connecting place, El Paso is uniquely situated as the western-most point of Texas along a domestic boundary with New Mexico and an international border with Mexico. This rare geographic placement has helped form El Paso’s identity as a binational, multicultural city. Additionally, El Paso’s far west location dictates that it has always been a bit of an outpost. It is the only major city in Texas that operates on Mountain Time (the rest of Texas is on Central Time), and the city’s rich Spanish heritage, mix of Hispanic cultures, and a shared history mean that El Paso often identifies more with its neighbor state, New Mexico, than with Texas. Indeed, New Mexico’s capital city, Santa Fe, is only 328 miles from El Paso, while its own state capital, Austin, is a whopping 618 miles away.

Since the founding of El Paso in the 17th century, the city’s layout has been shaped largely by the natural surroundings. Running mostly on an east-west axis, El Paso forms a U shape around the Franklin Mountains, which make up the southern tip of the North American Rockies. The stark desert mountains rising behind the El Paso skyline give the city a striking backdrop and a number of fantastic outdoor recreational areas, and make it the only major metropolitan area in Texas with a mountainous cityscape.

Overview

As most El Pasoans will tell you, it is pretty much impossible to get lost in the Sun City. I-10 forms the major east-west artery through the city, and the U.S.–Mexico border, comprised of a concrete ditch through which the Rio Grande flows, makes up the city’s southern boundary. The general rule of thumb is: if you come to a bridge, you’re leaving the United States!

Generally speaking, El Paso is a driving city. There is a fairly extensive public transport network, Sun Metro, which utilizes buses and trolleys, but most locals opt to drive. Parking is rarely a problem, even in the central areas, and it is also possible to walk, as long as you stick to the downtown and University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) areas of town. Walking across the bridges to Ciudad Juárez in Mexico was a popular pastime among tourists (although in recent years, tourism numbers to Juárez have dwindled because of the city’s increasing crime rates). A combination of taxis, shuttle buses, and city buses transports travelers to and from El Paso International Airport, which is a mere 6 miles from downtown. Across the board, El Paso is an extremely easy and scenic city to maneuver and offers visitors the chance to explore the special Borderlands culture unique to the area.