El Paso

El Paso, a Mexican town in the State of Chihuahua, on the Rio Grande, 340 miles S.W. of Santa Fe, and near the frontier of New Mexico.

The name is derived from its being the pass between Mexican and United States territory, and is applied to a number of settlements in the same valley along the Rio Grande. The valley is fertile, and produces wine and brandy, but the town is wretched. A railway bridge over the river connects El Paso with a town of the same name in Texas.