Puerto Cortés, originally known as Puerto de Caballos,[2] is a port city and municipality on the north Caribbean coast of Honduras, right on the Laguna de Alvarado, north of San Pedro Sula and east of Omoa, with a natural bay.

By 1533, a local native leader, called Çiçumba (or Çoçumba, or Socremba, or Joamba – the Spanish recorded many variants of his name) had destroyed the town, reportedly taking a woman from Seville, Spain captive.

The proposal to construct an "inter-oceanic railway" (Ferrocarril Interoceánico) in 1850, a product of the demand for transport from the Atlantic to the Pacific caused by the United States Gold Rush of 1849, began with the anchoring of the railroad at Puerto Cortés.

[6] In 1876 President Marco Aurelio Soto nationalised the Trans-Oceanic Railroad, which only reached to San Pedro Sula.

A concrete wall that surrounds and protects a portion of the coastline in the bay area was built near the northern end of the bridge.

The first four-lane highway in Honduras was inaugurated in 1996, connecting Puerto Cortés and the city of San Pedro Sula.

Among all worldwide seaports that export containers with goods with destination to USA, Puerto Cortés is the 36th in terms of volume.

[10] Under this agreement, all containers exported from Puerto Cortés that are destined for any US seaport are checked by US Customs officials in Honduras.

In March 2007, under the Megaport initiative, three RPMs (Radiation Portal Monitors) were already installed in Puerto Cortés by US DOE to inspect all containers with destination to USA, checking for possible dangerous radioactive threats.