The international railway bridge is the functional spine of the Nuevo Laredo crossing. Where passenger bridges carry people with passports, this bridge carries the freight that defines the city's economic reason for existing: automotive parts, electronics, agricultural products, and consumer goods flowing in both directions under NAFTA and its successor agreements.
From the riverbank, you can watch long freight trains creep across the Rio Grande in both directions, an industrial ballet that runs around the clock. It is not a tourist sight in any conventional sense, but it captures Nuevo Laredo more honestly than any museum could.