Brownsville, Texas map
25.90° N · 97.50° W · Cameron County seat · elev. ~30 ft · Central Time
Brownsville is the southernmost city in Texas and the 18th-largest, sitting in the last bend of the Rio Grande before it reaches the Gulf. Directly across the river is Matamoros, Tamaulipas; the two cities are joined by three international bridges.
The Rio Grande forms the southern edge of the frame. The curved green ribbons through the city are resacas — abandoned river channels.
Where Brownsville is in Texas
Brownsville is at the southeastern corner of the state, about 25 miles inland from the Gulf and roughly 60 miles east of McAllen along the US-83 corridor. Everything north of it is a long drive: Corpus Christi is 160 miles up US-77, and San Antonio is about 275 miles.
It is the seat of Cameron County, the southernmost county in Texas, and the largest city of the Brownsville–Harlingen metropolitan area, which covers the county's 421,017 people. Harlingen, the county's second city, is 25 miles north.
The Rio Grande has moved repeatedly across this delta, and its old channels stayed behind as resacas — narrow, curving lakes that thread between neighborhoods and are used as the city's raw water supply. The street grid bends around them, which is why Brownsville has few long straight roads outside the expressway corridors.
Highways and crossings
- US-77 / I-69E – the main route north, through Harlingen, Raymondville and Kingsville to Corpus Christi.
- US-83 / I-2 – the Valley expressway west through San Benito, Harlingen, Weslaco and Pharr to McAllen and Mission.
- SH-4 (Boca Chica Boulevard) – east from the city about 20 miles to Boca Chica Beach, passing the SpaceX Starbase launch site and production yard.
- SH-48 – northeast to the Port of Brownsville and on to Port Isabel and the causeway to South Padre Island.
- SH-550 / I-169 – short toll spur linking I-69E to the port and the Veterans Bridge.
- US-281 (Military Highway) – the old road west along the river levee toward Los Indios and Progreso.
The three crossings to Matamoros each do a different job. The Gateway International Bridge lands right at the north end of Matamoros' downtown and carries most of the foot traffic. The B&M Bridge, the older Brownsville and Matamoros crossing, is just downstream. The Veterans International Bridge at Los Tomates, east of the city on the SH-550 corridor, takes the commercial trucks. A fourth Cameron County crossing, the Free Trade Bridge at Los Indios, is about 20 miles west.
Areas and neighborhoods
| Area | What's there |
|---|---|
| Downtown / Elizabeth Street | Historic commercial district beside the Gateway and B&M bridges, Market Square |
| Fort Brown / UTRGV | The 1846 fort site on the river, now the university's Brownsville campus and a golf course |
| Southmost | The neighborhood inside the river's last bend, the southernmost in the state |
| Resaca corridors | Town Resaca and Resaca de la Guerra, with parks and older houses along the banks |
| Port of Brownsville | Docks, shipbreaking yards and industry on the ship channel northeast of the city on SH-48 |
| Paredes Line Road | East-side commercial strip running north from the expressway toward the airport |
| North Brownsville | Newer subdivisions along Old Alice Road and FM-802 toward Los Fresnos |
| Boca Chica corridor (SH-4) | Starbase, the tidal flats and the beach at the mouth of the Rio Grande |
The port, the launch site and the battlefields
The Port of Brownsville reaches the Gulf through a dredged ship channel about 17 miles long, cut across the flats north of the river mouth. It is the deepwater port closest to Mexico's industrial north, and it handles steel, petroleum products and one of the world's larger ship-recycling operations. In the last decade the same stretch of coast has taken on a second industry: SpaceX built its Starbase factory and launch pads at Boca Chica at the end of SH-4, and the surrounding settlement incorporated as its own city.
Brownsville also holds the ground where the Mexican–American War began. Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park, north of the city off FM-1847, preserves the May 1846 battlefield, and the fighting at Resaca de la Palma took place inside what is now the city itself. Fort Brown, built the same year on the riverbank, gave the town its name. The Gladys Porter Zoo, downtown beside a resaca, is the city's best-known attraction.
Distances from Brownsville
| City | Road miles | Route |
|---|---|---|
| Harlingen | 25 | US-77 / I-69E N |
| McAllen | 60 | I-2 / US-83 W |
| Edinburg | 70 | I-2 W / I-69C N |
| Corpus Christi | 160 | US-77 / I-69E N |
| Laredo | 200 | US-83 W / US-59 N |
| San Antonio | 275 | I-69E N / I-37 N |
| Houston | 350 | US-77 N / US-59 (I-69) N |