Ciudad Juárez (US: /sjuːˌdɑːd ˈhwɑːrɛz/ syoo-DAHD HWAR-ez, Spanish: [sjuˈðað ˈxwaɾes] ; "Juárez City"), commonly referred to as just Juárez (Lipan: Tsé Táhú'ayá), is the most populous city in the Mexican state of Chihuahua.[4] It was known until 1888 as El Paso del Norte ("The North Pass").[5] It is the seat of the Juárez Municipality with an estimated population of 2.5 million people.[6] Juárez lies on the Rio Grande (Río Bravo del Norte) river, south of El Paso, Texas, United States. Together with the surrounding areas, the cities form El Paso–Juárez, the second largest binational metropolitan area on the Mexico–U.S. border (after San Diego–Tijuana), with a combined population of over 3.4 million people.[7]
Four international points of entry connect Ciudad Juárez and El Paso: the Bridge of the Americas, the Ysleta–Zaragoza International Bridge, the Paso del Norte Bridge, and the Stanton Street Bridge. Combined, these bridges allowed 22,958,472 crossings in 2008,[8] making Ciudad Juárez a major point of entry and transportation into the U.S. for all of central northern Mexico. The city has a growing industrial center, which in large part is made up by more than 300 maquiladoras (assembly plants) located in and around the city. According to a 2007 New York Times article, Ciudad Juárez was "absorbing more new industrial real estate space than any other North American city".[6] In 2008, fDi Magazine designated Ciudad Juárez "The City of the Future".[9]
As 17th-century Spanish explorers sought a route through the southern Rocky Mountains, the Franciscan Friar García de San Francisco founded Ciudad Juárez in 1659 as "El Paso del Norte" ("The North Pass"). The Misión de Guadalupe de los Mansos en el Paso del río del Norte became the first permanent Spanish development in the area in the 1660s. The Franciscan friars established a community that grew in importance as commerce between Santa Fe and Chihuahua passed through it. The wood for the first bridge across the Rio Grande came from Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the late 18th century. The original population of Mansos, Suma, Jumano, and other natives from the south brought by the Spanish from Central New Spain grew around the mission. In 1680 during the Pueblo Revolt, most of the Piro Pueblo and some of the Tiwa people branch of the Pueblo became refugees. A Mission was established for the Tigua in