South of Laredo, US-83 follows a route parallel to the Rio Grande that was originally cut through the dry chaparral by Gen. Zachary Taylor’s soldiers during the 1846–48 Mexican-American War. The 1953 construction of 87,000-acre Falcon International Reservoir submerged the town of Zapata but provides hydroelectric power, flood control, and recreation along US-83.
US-83 continues southeast along the Rio Grande, passing through several Texas border towns held together by a common historical and cultural thread: All were settled by Spanish colonists in the mid-18th century as part of the famous José de Escandón land grant.
The surviving 19th-century Spanish- and Creole-style architecture in Roma, 40 miles southeast of Zapata, once the end of the line for steamboats sailing up the Rio Grande from the Gulf of Mexico, inspired director Elia Kazan to use the town as a film location for the 1952 movie Viva Zapata! starring Marlon Brando and Anthony Quinn. Many of the town’s buildings have been quietly restored, but the town is so quiet you can sometimes hear roosters crowing across the river in the Mexican town of Mier, where the narrow sandstone streets, old churches, and plazas haven’t changed in centuries.
Farther south along US-83 comes Rio Grande City, another former riverboat terminal. Among the historic buildings downtown is the renovated LaBorde House ($50; 956/487-5101), at 601 E. Main Street, a Creole-style inn designed by Parisian architects in 1899.
