{"id":1020835,"date":"2026-08-24T11:24:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T11:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1020835\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T11:24:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T11:24:14","slug":"cameron-county-clears-33m-bm-bridge-purchase-after-trump-permit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1020835\/","title":{"rendered":"Cameron County clears $33M B&M Bridge purchase after Trump permit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Late last month, President Donald Trump issued a permit<\/a> allowing Cameron County in the Rio Grande Valley to purchase an ownership stake in the Brownsville & Matamoros (B&M) International Bridge from Union Pacific Railroad. Officials are hailing the permit as a \u201chistoric milestone\u201d that will enhance international trade<\/a> in a region where global companies are investing billions of dollars in new commerce and industrial development.<\/p>\n

The July 30 presidential permit was the final hurdle Cameron County needed to clear before completing the $33 million purchase<\/a> of Union Pacific\u2019s 50% ownership stake in the bridge. The remaining half is owned by the government of Mexico.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis historic milestone marks an important step toward enhancing international trade, modernizing border infrastructure, and strengthening cross-border partnership for years to come,\u201d Cameron County Judge Eddie\u00a0Trevi\u00f1o Jr. said<\/a> on Facebook.<\/p>\n

The B&M International Bridge<\/a> is the oldest international bridge in the Valley. In 1909, two Mexican and American rail companies agreed to jointly build, own and operate a bridge spanning the Rio Grande between Brownsville and Matamoros. Construction took more than a year, and the bridge officially opened in December 1910. That now 116-year-old structure remains in use today as a freight rail bridge while a second, four-lane concrete bridge built in 1997 handles all other vehicular and pedestrian traffic.<\/p>\n

Cameron County already owns three other international bridges<\/a>: Veterans International Bridge at Los Tomates and Gateway International Bridge<\/a> \u2014 both in Brownsville \u2014 and the Free Trade International Bridge in the town of Los Indios. In 2024, then-President Joe Biden issued a similar presidential permit authorizing the construction of a fourth, the Flor de Mayo International Bridge, which has yet to be built.<\/p>\n

Between April and the end of June this year, more than 850,000 passenger vehicles and more than 76,000 commercial vehicles crossed the three county-owned bridges, generating more than $6.5 million in revenue, according to county records.<\/p>\n

Adding B&M to the portfolio will create \u201ca more efficient and connected international trade corridor that will strengthen Cameron County\u2019s role as a premier gateway between the United States and Mexico,\u201d said Cameron County Administrator Pete Sepulveda Jr.<\/p>\n

The county\u2019s historic deal to purchase the century-old bridge garnered bipartisan support from Republican U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz and from U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-Brownsville.<\/p>\n

Cameron County plans to pay for the $33 million purchase through revenue bonds \u2014 debt that will be repaid over time using toll crossing revenues. Once the ink is dry, the county will invest at least $5 million to modernize the bridge.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce the acquisition is complete, Cameron County plans to invest in targeted infrastructure and operational improvements\u201d to the bridge\u2019s toll collections and vehicle inspection technologies, and customs processing facilities, county officials said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Late last month, President Donald Trump issued a permit allowing Cameron County in the Rio Grande Valley to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1020836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5133],"tags":[5229,325910,338585,37065,7202,7203,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-1020835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-america","tag-mysanews","tag-mysasotx","tag-mysastaff","tag-san-antonio","tag-sanantonio","tag-texas","tag-tx","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117150237841255962","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1020835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1020836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1020835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1020835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1020835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}