This new rail bridge under construction linking Brownsville, Texas and Matamoros, Mexico is a symbol of the growing trade relations between the two countries.
Trade between the United States and Mexico reached half a trillion dollars in 2011. Cross-border commerce is growing despite escalating drug violence in Mexico.
The final tally came out to $500 billion in goods and services traded between the two countries, according to a paper by the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars and Arizona State University's North American Center for Transborder Studies.
