"Rio Grande Crossing at Paso del Norte, Mexico" Photographer: Ben Wittick Date: 1880-1890? Negative Number 015666. Photo courtesy of the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives
Rio Grande Crossing at Paso del Norte, Mexico
Recently, the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives Facebook page published this photo. Intrigued by a ferry located close enough to our research area, I did a little investigating and found out the following.
"In that early period, wagon trains came through El Paso over the perilous Santa Fe Trail. Stage coaches made El Paso a stop on their transcontinental routes. There were livery stables and ox carts. And there was a ferry service between El Paso and Juarez consisting of a small, flat bottomed boat which could be operated only when there was enough water in the river. The late Capt. J.J. Sullivan of the Fire Department operated the ferry service in the 1880s." from El Paso Electric website
From the El Paso Herald Saturday May 4, 1901 edition comes this photo caption (photo is not in good enough shape to reproduce here) "The above picture shows the old ferry over te (sic) Rio Grande at this point, as it was in the earliest days, and remained up to the time of the construction of the first bridge in 1881. Many old times in this vicinity well remember the ferry. Notice the rope from shore to shore."
"A rudimentary attempt at laying out the town was undertaken by resolute settlers. By mid-century (ed. 1850s), the town had grown and El Paso Street, then known as Alameda, became the principal (sic) highway and ended at a ferry crossing over to Paso del Norte (now Juarez). At the end of Stanton Street, then called Camino Real, the highway was a ford. Between these two roads, a cable made of cactus fiber was stretched across the river. A large iron ring on the fiber rope made it possible to drawn bundles from one side of the border to the other. Horses were often tethered to the cable and assisted across the river at a minimal charge of a few telacos, a coin now defunct. (From the book, "Whose House We Are" by Melanie Klink Wayne. WestBow Press, Oct 22, 2014)