El Paso : Texas
El Paso is a city located in El Paso County, Texas, United States.
As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 679,622. El Paso — second only to San Diego, California, in size among all United States cities on the border with Mexico — lies opposite Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. The two cities form a binational metropolitan area of approximately two million people, divided by the Rio Grande.
El Paso is home to The University of Texas at El Paso (founded 1913 as the Texas College of Mines, received university status 1967). Fort Bliss, a major United States Army installation, lies to the east and northeast of the city, extending north up to the White Sands Missile Range. The Franklin Mountains extend into El Paso from the north and nearly divide the city into two sections.
El Paso is served by El Paso International Airport, I-10, U.S. Highway 54, and Mexican Federal Highway 45.
History
Archeological evidence at the Keystone Wetlands and Hueco Tanks sites indicates thousands of years of human settlement within the El Paso region. The Manso and Suma Indians were identified as present by the earliest Spanish explorers. Nothing is known of these people’s origin or ultimate fate.
After the settling of El Paso del Norte, on the south bank of the Rio Grande, the present-day city of El Paso was simply the Ponce de León Ranch, on the north side of the river. American settlers began drifting into El Paso, to stay for good after the founding of the Texas Republic and the Mexican Cession.
A trading post called Franklin was established during this time. El Paso was platted in 1859, but grew slowly when the railroads came in 1881. The population had grown to 10,000 by the 1890 census.
