The Rio Grande
The river border between the U.S. and Mexico
The Rio Grande runs about 1,896 miles (3,051 km) from the high mountains of southern Colorado through New Mexico and along the entire length of the Texas–Mexico border to the Gulf of Mexico. For roughly 1,250 miles it serves as the international boundary, separating Texas from the Mexican states across the water. Its Spanish name means simply "big river," though for much of its course through the desert it is anything but.
The river threads the high desert of New Mexico past Albuquerque, then carves the deep canyons of Big Bend before turning to mark the border. So much water is drawn off for irrigation and cities along the way that the river sometimes runs dry in its middle reaches, its flow rebuilt downstream by tributaries. As a border, a water source, and a desert lifeline, the Rio Grande carries outsized political and ecological weight.