We've seen several photos of the edge of town on the levee from the 1860s to the present day. People often marvel when they learn for the first time how wide the Rio Grande once was and how close it came to what we now know as Levee St. The maps below combine Google maps images with the 1880 map to help the reader put into perspective where the actual lines would be drawn today.
An interesting note about the map is that is shows an area where boats were left stranded when water levels decreased. According to the map two ship hulls once stood on Mexican side which was eventually absorbed by the United States when the course of the river changed dramatically.
Back then a severe enough drought could slow business on river for months. After the Falcon Dam was built in 1953 and farmers drained river to irrigate farms on both sides of border the river shrunk and never returned to it's former grandeur.
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