Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Brownsville, TX

Brownsville was founded on December 13, 1848 by merchant Charles Stillman and incorporated in 1850, and it serves as the county seat of Cameron County.

The city grew up around Fort Brown, which General Zachary Taylor built in 1846 and named for Major Jacob Brown, who was killed defending the area on May 9, 1846; the Battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, among the opening battles of the Mexican-American War, were fought nearby on May 8–9, 1846.

Brownsville is the southernmost city in Texas, sitting on the north bank of the Rio Grande directly across from Matamoros, Mexico, about 22 miles from the river's mouth on the Gulf of Mexico.

Brownsville counted 186,738 residents in the 2020 Census — the largest city in the Rio Grande Valley — and its metropolitan area held about 421,017 people.

About 94% of Brownsville's residents are Hispanic or Latino, one of the highest shares of any large American city, according to Census QuickFacts.

Brownsville has about 59,839 households, and at 3.13 people per household its families run noticeably larger than the national norm.

The Port of Brownsville, a deepwater port that opened in 1936 and is reached by a 17-mile ship channel, is the southwestern terminus of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and home to a large shrimping fleet.

Brownsville is linked to Matamoros by three international bridges: the Brownsville & Matamoros International Bridge, the Gateway International Bridge and the Veterans International Bridge.

Texas Southmost College, founded in 1926, is one of the oldest community colleges in Texas, and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley also runs a major campus in Brownsville.

The 31-acre Gladys Porter Zoo is one of Brownsville's best-known attractions.