Harlingen, Texas map
26.19° N · 97.70° W · Cameron County · Rio Grande Valley · Central Time
Harlingen is the road junction of the Rio Grande Valley. The north–south route out of the Valley — US-77, now signed as Interstate 69E — meets the east–west Valley expressway, US-83 and Interstate 2, at the west edge of the city. Anything driving between Brownsville, McAllen and the rest of Texas passes through that interchange.
Centered on the city. The winding channel crossing the frame is the Arroyo Colorado; the airport is the open ground on the east side.
Where Harlingen is in Texas
The city is 25 miles north of Brownsville and about 40 miles east of McAllen, near the middle of Cameron County. The Rio Grande and the Mexican border are roughly 20 miles south, the Gulf and South Padre Island about 35 miles east, and the next town of any size going north is Raymondville, 25 miles up US-77 in Willacy County. Beyond that the road crosses 60 miles of ranch country — the King Ranch — before reaching Kingsville, which is why Harlingen feels like the Valley's northern gate.
Harlingen dates from 1904, when the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway came through and Lon C. Hill laid out a townsite, naming it after Harlingen in the Netherlands. Irrigation from the Rio Grande turned the surrounding brushland into citrus groves and vegetable fields within a generation.
The airport and the arroyo
Valley International Airport sits on the east side of town off Loop 499 and is one of the three commercial airports serving the Valley, along with McAllen and Brownsville. The Marine Military Academy occupies part of the same ground, and the working model used to cast the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia stands on its campus.
The Arroyo Colorado, an abandoned channel of the Rio Grande, curves through the north and east sides of the city. It is a navigable waterway below Harlingen: the Port of Harlingen ships on it to the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, about 25 miles east. Upstream the arroyo's banks hold Hugh Ramsey Nature Park and the Harlingen Thicket, two of the World Birding Center sites strung along the Valley.
Highways
- I-69E / US-77 – south to San Benito and Brownsville; north to Raymondville, Kingsville and Corpus Christi.
- I-2 / US-83 – west through La Feria, Weslaco and Pharr to McAllen and Mission; its eastern end is at the I-69E interchange in Harlingen.
- Loop 499 – the city loop, passing the airport on the east and connecting both expressways.
- Business 77 (Sunshine Strip / Ed Carey Drive) – the old highway through the middle of town.
- FM-106 – east to Rio Hondo and the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge.
- SH-100 – reached by driving south on I-69E to Los Fresnos, then east to Port Isabel and South Padre Island.
Around Harlingen
The land around the city is farmed hard. Irrigation canals fed from the Rio Grande run in straight lines across the fields, and the crops are citrus, sugar cane, cotton, sorghum and winter vegetables — the Valley harvests vegetables while most of the country is frozen. Rio Hondo lies 12 miles east on FM-106, La Feria 12 miles west on I-2, and beyond Rio Hondo the road reaches Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, the largest protected area of coastal brushland in South Texas.
Two international bridges are close: the Free Trade International Bridge at Los Indios, about 15 miles south, and the Progreso bridge to the west. The Valley's third bridge cluster is at Brownsville, 25 miles down I-69E.
Areas and neighborhoods
| Area | What's there |
|---|---|
| Downtown | Jackson Street, the historic district, city hall and the Harlingen Arts and Heritage Museum |
| Sunshine Strip | Business 77 commercial corridor running north–south through the older city |
| Airport / east side | Valley International Airport, Marine Military Academy, industrial park |
| Treasure Hills | Southeast residential district with golf, near the medical center |
| Medical district | Valley Baptist Medical Center and the UTRGV medical school clinical sites |
| Palm Valley | Separate small city on the northwest side, laid out along the arroyo |
| Combes and Primera | Towns immediately north along Business 77 and FM-509 |
| San Benito | Town 8 miles south on I-69E, the next place down the freeway |
Distances from Harlingen
| Destination | Road miles | Route |
|---|---|---|
| Brownsville | 25 | I-69E S |
| South Padre Island | 35 | I-69E S / SH-100 E |
| McAllen | 40 | I-2 W |
| Edinburg | 45 | I-2 W / I-69C N |
| Corpus Christi | 120 | US-77 / I-69E N |
| Laredo | 195 | US-83 W |
| San Antonio | 265 | I-69C / US-281 N |
The Border Patrol checkpoint on US-77 north of Sarita stops all northbound traffic leaving the Valley; allow extra time on that leg.