These sub-regions are typically defined by state borders, even though some New Mexico towns in the region like Sunland Park are significantly closer to El Paso than to Las Cruces.

The Franklin Mountains region has had human settlement for thousands of years, as evidenced by Folsom points from hunter-gatherers found at Hueco Tanks.

[16] Although there was no combat in the region during the Mexican War of Independence, El Paso del Norte experienced the negative effects it had on its wine trade.

Given the blurry reclamations of the Texas Republic that wanted a chunk of the Santa Fe trade, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo effectively made the settlements on the north bank of the river a formal American settlement, separate from Old El Paso del Norte on the Mexican side.

[16] The present Texas-New Mexico boundary placing El Paso on the Texas side was drawn in the Compromise of 1850.

The United States Senate fixed a boundary between Texas and New Mexico at the thirty-second parallel, thus largely ignoring history and topography.

Further west, a settlement on Coons' Rancho called Franklin became the nucleus of the future El Paso, Texas.

[18] During the French intervention in Mexico (1862–1867), El Paso del Norte served as a temporary stop for republican forces of ousted leader Benito Juárez until he established his government-in-exile in Chihuahua.

The 1920s and 1930s saw the emergence of major business development in the city partially enabled by Prohibition era bootlegging with the area becoming a significant port of entry for liquor.

[18] The Depression era hit the region hard and population declined through the end of World War II.

Following the war, military expansion in the area as well as oil discoveries in the Texas Permian Basin helped spur redevelopment in the mid-1900s.

West of Juárez and El Paso the river turns away from the border, connecting these cities with Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Since frontier days military spending, directly and indirectly, has provided a significant source of money to El Paso and to the region as a whole.

[29] Though the national boundaries are an important point of separation, efforts at regional planning and economic integration exist in the local governments and the business communities.

[30] Efforts at community and environmental cooperation including the Paso del Norte Clean Cities Coalition exist as well.

These universities have strong ties to each other (as well as to the Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua) with formal programs of exchange for scholars and students.

[32] Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso plays a major part in the region because it is one of the few stand alone Medical Schools, where they work closely with Doctors Without Borders.

Until the 1920s and 1930s the communities of Ciudad Juárez and El Paso enjoyed largely unfettered access to one another, maintaining a sense of unity.

Prohibition and World War II brought about more strict enforcement of the border in this region, making access between the communities more difficult.

Tourists, workers, and students who were once allowed regular access across the border have been restricted to much tighter schedules for travel.

[37] Though violent crime on the U.S. side of the border has remained very low, murders in Juárez related to the drug cartels began to grow rapidly after 2007.

[38][39] On 20 February 2009, the U.S. State Department announced in an updated travel alert that "Mexican authorities report that more than 1,800 people have been killed in the city since January 2008.

[43] That trend has continued in 2013 when 497 homicides were reported, the lowest amount since 2007,[44] dropping Ciudad Juárez to the 37th spot of most dangerous cities.

El Paso is served by El Paso International Airport, Amtrak via the historic Union Depot, I-10, US 54 (known locally as "54", the "North-South Freeway" or officially as the Patriot Freeway), Spur 601 (Liberty Expressway), US 180 and US 62 (Montana Avenue), US 85 (Paisano Drive), Loop 375, Loop 478 (Copia Street-Pershing Drive-Dyer Street), numerous Texas Farm-to-Market roads (a class of state highway commonly abbreviated to FM) and the city's original thoroughfare, SH 20, the eastern portion of which is known locally as Alameda Avenue (formerly US 80).

The BRT system studies conducted by the Instituto Municipal de Investigación y Planeación project a daily ridership of 40,000.

The first of the five routes opened to users in late 2013 and is officially named Presidencia-Tierra Nueva and has 34 stations distributed along the north to south corridor.

The route starts at Avenida Francisco Villa, follows north to Eje Vial Norte-Sur then veers left at Zaragoza Blvd.

[50] El Paso International Airport, a public airport four miles northeast of Downtown El Paso, has fifteen gates on two concourses and is served by seven major airlines, Alaska, Allegiant, American, Delta, Frontier, Southwest, and United Airlines and has flights to fourteen direct destinations.

The airport is served by five major airlines Aeroméxico, Interjet, TAR Aerolíneas, VivaAerobus, and Volaris and has non-stop flights to twelve destinations.

[54] The first bridge to cross the Rio Grande at El Paso del Norte was built in the time of Nueva España, over 250 years ago, from wood hauled in from Santa Fe.