Nuevo Laredo

Nuevo Laredo is a city in the Municipality of Nuevo Laredo in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, on the banks of the Rio Grande directly across from Laredo, Texas. The 2010 census counted 373,725 people in the city, and the Laredo and Nuevo Laredo metropolitan area had 636,516. It is called the customs capital of Latin America because of its high volume of international trade and is of great importance for United States inland commercial traffic, and both the city and the municipality rank third in size in the state. Three international bridges and a rail bridge link it to Laredo. The area was part of the original settlement of Laredo, founded in 1755 by Tomas Sanchez, and the two stayed together until the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo divided the territory in 1848. Nuevo Laredo was founded on June 15, 1848, by seventeen Laredo families who wished to remain Mexican and crossed to the Mexican side of the river. A customs house was established in 1855 and a railroad reached the city in 1881.