Ciudad Juarez

Ciudad Juárez ( HWAH-rez; Juarez City. Spanish pronunciation: [sjuˈðað ˈxwaɾes] (listen)) is the most populous city in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. The city is commonly referred to as simply Juárez, and was known as El Paso del Norte (The Pass of the North) until 1888. Juárez is the seat of the Juárez Municipality with an estimated population of 1.5 million people. It 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 2.7 million people.Four international points of entry connect Ciudad Juárez and El Paso: the Bridge of the Americas, the Ysleta International Bridge, the Paso del Norte Bridge, and the Stanton Street Bridge. Combined, these bridges allowed 22,958,472 crossings in 2008, 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". In 2008, fDi Magazine designated Ciudad Juárez "The City of the Future".