Layout of Ciudad Juárez
The city faces El Paso, Texas across the Río Bravo — the Rio Grande on the far bank — where the river stops being a border and the line becomes a surveyed straight edge running west to the Pacific. Juárez is the older half of the pair: the Misión de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe was founded here in 1659 at the ford known as El Paso del Norte, and the settlement kept that name until 1888, when it was renamed for Benito Juárez, who governed the republic from the town in 1865 and 1866. The Centro still sits directly under the Paso del Norte bridge, a grid of low blocks around Avenida Juárez and Avenida 16 de Septiembre, with the mission church and the cathedral beside the old customs house. East of it the Pronaf district, laid out in the 1960s under the National Border Programme, holds the art museum, the convention hall and most of the hotels.
The city then spreads south and east across the desert plain at about 1,140 m. Avenida Tecnológico and the Eje Vial Juan Gabriel are the main arteries; the industrial parks, and with them most of the workforce, lie along the Zaragoza and Panamericana corridors toward the airport. Abraham González International (CJS) is about 15 km south of the centre on Highway 45. To the north-west, below the statue on Mount Cristo Rey where Chihuahua, New Mexico and Texas meet, the Anapra colonias climb the sand hills; downstream to the south-east the Valle de Juárez runs through Zaragoza, Guadalupe and Práxedis, irrigated cotton and pecan country along the river. With 1,512,450 people in the municipality at the 2020 census, Juárez is larger than the state capital, and together with El Paso it forms a metropolitan area of about 2.5 million — the largest binational conurbation on the border.
Distances from Ciudad Juárez
| Place | km | Time | How |
|---|---|---|---|
| El Paso city centre | 3 | 15 min | Walk the Paso del Norte bridge |
| Bridge of the Americas (Puente Libre) | 5 | 15 min | Toll-free crossing at the Chamizal |
| Ciudad Juárez airport (CJS) | 15 | 20 min | Highway 45 south |
| Ysleta–Zaragoza crossing | 18 | 25 min | Avenida Zaragoza, south-east |
| El Paso airport (ELP) | 25 | 40 min | Via the Bridge of the Americas |
| Samalayuca dunes | 50 | 40 min | Highway 45 south |
| Las Cruces, New Mexico | 90 | 1 h | Interstate 10 north of the line |
| Nuevo Casas Grandes (Paquimé) | 300 | 3 h 30 | Highway 2 west, then Highway 10 |
| Chihuahua (state capital) | 375 | 4 h | Highway 45D toll road |
| Mexico City | 1,850 | 19 h | Highway 45D and 57D |
The bridges and the maquiladoras
Four ports of entry link the two cities. Paso del Norte, the Santa Fe Street bridge, is the pedestrian and northbound car crossing between the downtowns and the busiest for people on foot; the Stanton Street bridge alongside it carries southbound traffic into Mexico. The Bridge of the Americas, the Puente Libre, is the only toll-free crossing and runs through the Chamizal parks — land created when the 1963 treaty settled a century-old dispute over the shifting river channel and the Río Bravo was moved into a concrete course in 1967. Ysleta–Zaragoza, to the south-east, is the freight bridge. The US–Mexico border map shows how they sit in the chain of crossings from Tijuana to Matamoros, and the rivers map traces the Bravo from the Colorado Rockies to the Gulf.
Juárez has the largest maquiladora workforce in Mexico. Assembly plants arrived with the Border Industrialization Programme of 1965, which allowed duty-free import of components for re-export, and the city now has more than 300 plants employing roughly 300,000 people in wiring harnesses, medical devices, electronics and vehicle parts — most of the output crossing at Zaragoza. Away from the plants, Highway 45D runs south through the Samalayuca dunes to Chihuahua, and Highway 2 runs west along the border toward Janos and Agua Prieta, passing the turn for Paquimé at Casas Grandes, the largest pre-Hispanic city of northern Mexico and a UNESCO site shown on the archaeological sites map. See the road map for the corridor south, the time zone map for the split between the border strip and the rest of the state, and Northern Mexico for the wider tier of border cities.
Questions about Ciudad Juárez
Where is Ciudad Juárez on the map of Mexico?
At the northern tip of Chihuahua, on the south bank of the Río Bravo directly opposite El Paso, Texas, at 31.69° N. It is the largest city in the state, about 375 km north of Chihuahua city and roughly 1,850 km from Mexico City.
How do you cross from El Paso to Ciudad Juárez?
By one of four bridges. The Paso del Norte bridge at Santa Fe Street carries pedestrians and northbound cars between the two downtowns; the Stanton Street bridge takes southbound traffic; the toll-free Bridge of the Americas crosses the Chamizal a few kilometres east; and Ysleta–Zaragoza, further south-east, handles commercial trucks and passengers. A passport or equivalent document is required.
What time zone is Ciudad Juárez in?
Mountain time, UTC−7, and it still changes its clocks on the US dates so that it stays level with El Paso. When Mexico abolished daylight saving in October 2022 the rest of Chihuahua moved to Central time, UTC−6, with no summer change; the border municipalities were exempted and kept the old arrangement.
How far is Ciudad Juárez from Chihuahua city?
About 375 km south on Federal Highway 45D, the toll road, which takes roughly four hours across the desert basins. Buses run through the day, and both cities have airports with flights to Mexico City.
Is Ciudad Juárez safe to visit?
The US State Department places Chihuahua at Level 3, reconsider travel, citing crime and kidnapping. Homicide in the city peaked during the cartel conflict of 2008 to 2011, fell sharply afterwards and has risen again since 2018; the documented risk is concentrated away from the bridges and the downtown. Check the current US State Department advisory before travelling.