Michael,

You've almost got it.

Not only the physical substance of the MXUS bridges, but also persons and
traffic upon them are governed by the established boundary monuments on the
bridges. Anything or anyone not on the bridges (in the air above or on the
ground or water below) is governed by the current location of the middle of the
main channel of the river. This is by the 1970 treaty.

If it were otherwise, the wording on the bridge monuments and signs would be
meaningless to their readers if those readers had to look off the bridge
(perhaps in darkness) and estimate the location of the middle of the river.

Lowell G. McManus
Leesville, Louisiana, USA

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Kaufman" <mikekaufman79@...>
To: <BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2004 6:17 AM
Subject: Re: [BoundaryPoint] Israel Army Proposes to Create Enclaves

> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BoundaryPoint/message/10911
> Due to the changing course of the river, the
> bordermarker on the bridge is now directly over land
> on the northern/US bank of the Rio Grande. The bridge
> itself and its supports are Mexican all the way up
> until the marker. But for everything else, the border
> is the middle of the river. So for instance, you
> could be standing on the bridge say 2 feet south of
> the bordermarker. Directly beneath you is a sovereign
> Mexican bridge. But beneath and above that is
> soverign US airspace and land on the north bank of the
> Rio grande. You are in the US even though you are
> south of the marker. Only the physical bridge is in
> Mexico. But you can not be in Mexico this way since
> you would have to occupy the same physical space as
> the bridge at the same time, which is, of course,
> impossible. If you were on the bridge and wanted to
> visit Mexico, you would have to walk further south
> until you pass the middle of the river. This is how I
> understand the situation to be.
> -Mike