Cameron County has cleared the last major hurdle in a $33 million deal to buy Union Pacific Railroad's 50% ownership stake in the Brownsville and Matamoros International Bridge, a 116-year-old crossing that has carried freight rail traffic across the Rio Grande since 1910. A presidential permit authorizing the purchase came through on July 30, and county officials say at least $5 million in upgrades to the aging structure will follow.
The federal approval, first reported by MySA, caps a process that began nearly a year earlier when the Cameron County Commissioners Court unanimously approved the stock purchase agreement on October 7, 2025, according to the RGV Business Journal. Once the deal closes, the Government of Mexico will retain the remaining 50% ownership share, per the presidential permit cited by MySA, while Cameron County becomes co-owner of a crossing it does not currently control.
A Century-Old Crossing Gets New Ownership
The bridge dates to a 1909 agreement between two Mexican and American rail companies to span the Rio Grande between Brownsville and Matamoros, with construction finishing in December 1910, per MySA. The structure was widened in 1953 and 1992, and an adjacent four-lane concrete toll bridge was added in 1997 to carry vehicular and pedestrian traffic separately from the rail span, according to Texas Border Business. That second bridge now handles all other vehicular and pedestrian crossings, per MySA, while the original span still functions as a freight rail bridge.
Freight rail traffic bound for the downtown crossing was rerouted in August 2015 when the West Rail Bypass International Bridge opened, marking the first new rail crossing built between the U.S. and Mexico in 105 years, as reported by FreightWaves. That earlier project eased congestion in downtown Brownsville by separating rail traffic from the urban core, setting the stage for the ownership shift now underway at the older bridge.
What the $33 Million Buys
Cameron County plans to finance the purchase through revenue bonds that will be repaid using toll crossing revenues, per MySA. County officials project the acquisition will generate an additional $7 million annually in toll revenue once the county has full operational control of the crossing, according to KRGV. Beyond the purchase price, the county intends to spend at least $5 million to modernize the bridge, with plans to improve vehicle inspection technologies, customs processing facilities, and bridge toll collections, MySA reports.
Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño Jr. said the milestone will enhance international trade, modernize border infrastructure, and strengthen cross-border partnership for years to come, according to MySA. Cameron County Administrator Pete Sepulveda Jr. added that bringing the bridge into the county's portfolio will create a more efficient and connected international trade corridor, per the same report. The purchase drew bipartisan support from Republican U.S. Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, along with Democratic U.S. Representative Vicente Gonzalez of Brownsville, MySA notes.
Joining a Growing Bridge Portfolio
The B&M crossing would become the fourth international bridge under Cameron County ownership, joining the Gateway International Bridge in downtown Brownsville, the Free Trade International Bridge in Los Indios, and the Veterans International Bridge at Los Tomates. Those three county-owned bridges carried more than 850,000 passenger vehicles and over 76,000 commercial vehicles between April and the end of June 2026, generating more than $6.5 million in revenue over that same period, according to MySA. Looking back further, the county's bridges recorded more than 5.6 million total crossings and facilitated over $20 billion in binational trade in 2024, per San Benito News.
The B&M purchase fits into a broader pattern of federal approvals flowing to Cameron County's border infrastructure. In August 2025, President Trump issued a presidential permit authorizing the county to build a dedicated two-lane pedestrian bridge next to the Gateway International Bridge downtown, Texas Border Business reported. Earlier, in May 2024, President Biden granted a presidential permit for the proposed $30 million Flor de Mayo International Bridge, a four-lane vehicular and pedestrian crossing planned eight miles upstream from the B&M Bridge; that span has not yet been built, per MySA.
Recent Upgrades and Ongoing Projects
The Veterans International Bridge already saw a $17 million infrastructure expansion completed in May 2025 that added four primary vehicle lanes and eight secondary inspection bays, as Hoodline previously reported. In March 2026, the county also began land acquisition for the East Loop project, an overweight truck corridor meant to connect Veterans International Bridge to the Port of Brownsville and route heavy freight away from city streets, according to MyRGV.com.
The B&M Bridge has also seen its share of federal enforcement activity in recent years. In May 2025, Customs and Border Protection officers intercepted $78,040 in unreported currency hidden inside a vehicle at the crossing, a case Hoodline covered at the time. It remains to be seen how the finalized deal will affect day-to-day operations, including how quickly the county's planned CBP technology and facility upgrades will roll out once ownership formally transfers.
-4.webp?w=160&h=400&fit=crop&crop=edges)