Developing technologies to surmount walls has been a historic militaristic endeavor. Many creative attempts have been invented to surmount the borderwall. Tunneling and going under is common practice, but going over the wall is more daring. Perhaps one of the most ingenious methods by which people attempt to cross the wall is the creation of portable bridges using steel ramps to create paths for automobiles to drive over the fence. There are several types of bridges: Some are attached to vehicles, making them highly portable. Others must be carried by hand and put in place by several people. These bridges are used on the several different types of walls that exist along the border, from the vehicular walls, specifically designed to stop automobile crossings, to the taller pedestrian and hybrid walls.

 

Many of the borderwall bridges are discovered because the crossings were unsuccessful. For example, in 2009 on the Tohono O’odham Reservation near the San Miguel Gate, a pickup truck carrying 314 pounds of marijuana fell off a steel bridge that was placed over a vehicular barrier made railroad ties. The front wheels then became wedged between the rails of the metal ramp.

In 2011, near the southern most end of Foothills Boulevard and the international boundary near Yuma, Arizona, Border Patrol agents discovered a 2001 Jeep Cherokee suspiciously driving at high speeds. When agents attempted to stop the vehicle, it changed directions and headed south towards Mexico and when the vehicle’s occupants encountered the fence, they escaped on foot, going around the fence and fleeing into Mexico. Inside the vehicle the agents discovered 1,000 lbs. of marijuana. The agents later discovered that the vehicle had entered the U.S. by driving over a large ramp that was placed over the 12 foot tall borderwall. The ramp was permanently attached to a truck that had the capability of creating a mobile bridge. One half of the ramp folded over itself, and when parked next to the borderwall, it was folded over the other side touching ground in the U.S. so that the Jeep could drive up the back of the truck, over the wall, and down into the U.S. side.[1] This ingenious portable bridge was similar, but a low-tech version, of the armored vehicle-launched bridges that are designed to assist in rapidly deploying tanks and other armored fighting vehicles across rivers.[2] Several other examples of these types of deployable vehicle-launched borderwall ramps have been discovered.

Jeep Cherokees seem to be a preferred vehicle for driving over borderwall bridges and the Yuma Sector seems like the place they like to cross.  In the Imperial County Sand Dunes in California near Yuma, AZ, Border Patrol agents discovered a silver Jeep Cherokee high-centered and immobilized at the top of the infamous 14 foot tall floating fence (refer to floating fence). A set of makeshift ramps had been placed on both sides of the wall allowing the Jeep to drive to the top of the wall. However, despite the Jeep’s capabilities as an off-road vehicle, it was found teetering (refer to teetering) between the two countries at the top of the wall. While it is unclear what the vehicle was carrying, as it was found empty, it is suspected that it was attempting to smuggle marijuana and was emptied and abandoned when it became lodged atop the wall.

Supervisory Border Patrol Agent James Jaques of San Diego, CA summed up the condition of ramps across the border, stating, “It’s like the old show ‘The Dukes of Hazzard,’ cars flying through the air.”[3]