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Mexican President Felipe Calderon visited the border to inspect a new highway and a railway linking Brownsville and Matamoros.

While in Matamoros, Calderon inaugurated construction for expansion of the Matamoros-Reynosa Highway.

But he also took a look at the international railroad that links both the United States and Mexico.

Escorted by heavy security and military, Calderon toured the railroad tracks which cross the Rio Grande River near U.S. Highway 281 in  West Brownsville.

It will be the first international railroad built by the two countries in the past 100 years.

Calderon said the project cost Mexico $60 million dollars and the United States $100 million dollars.

The railroad spans 5.6 miles from the Rio Grande into Mexico and 6.6 miles from the river into American side of the border.

According to Calderon, one billion dollars worth of merchandise are exchanged through border each day.

He hopes that the railroad will generate jobs and manufacturing on both sides of the border.

The Mexican side of the railroad bridge is about 99 percent completed but the American side is only about 85 percent completed.

The railroad is not yet operational but the target date for that is sometime in the spring.

Calderon leaves office in December when President-Elect Enrique Peña-Nieto is sworn in.