The Bridge · #002 · April 2026

Where $873 Billion Actually Crosses

Name: Where $873 Billion Actually Crosses
Creator: Daniel Covarrubias
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Start with $872.8 billion in U.S.-Mexico goods trade. Filter for Texas, then for one city. What's left is close to a billion dollars a day over two bridges.

As published · 2025 (Texas 2024)

U.S.-Mexico goods trade2025$872.8B

100%

Texas border ports2024$548.0B

62.8%

Port Laredo2025$353.9B

40.5%

$969.6Ma day at Laredo

$40.4Man hour

$673,326a minute

$673,326every minute, around the clock

What the chart says

Source: U.S. Census Bureau (2025 goods trade and Port Laredo); Texas Comptroller (Texas border ports, 2024). Read “Close to a Billion a Day, Two Bridges” on The Bridge →

Since publication

The latest 12 months

Through the latest 12 months of Census data, Port Laredo moved $384.9B, equal to 40.3% of the $954.1B in U.S.-Mexico goods trade. Switch the chart to “Latest 12 months” to see the funnel.

Two cautions on the comparison. Port figures count trade with every country that moves through the port, so they are set against the U.S.-Mexico total, not carved out of it. And the live Texas bar sums Census data for Texas land ports (71.7%), while the post's $548B came from the Texas Comptroller for 2024: different sources, so the two Texas shares don't compare.

Census Bureau international trade API: goods, all districts, and port-level data for Texas land ports and Port Laredo (2304), current vintage.

From the same post

Close to a Billion a Day, Two Bridges

You're hereWhere It CrossesThe compression: $873B → $548B → $354B ChartWhat's on the Trucks$354B by commodity with export/import toggle ChartIf Laredo Were a CountryGlobal ranking: between Austria and Hungary

Cite this chart

Covarrubias, D. (2026). Where $873 Billion Actually Crosses. The Bridge #002, "Close to a Billion a Day, Two Bridges". Daniel Covarrubias Labs. https://labs.drdanielcovarrubias.com/charts/bridge-002/funnel.