Smuggler’s Gulch

A man on the Tijuana side of the border line peeks through a small hole in the 10-foot steel barrier. On the other side, fresh graded soil will become the roadbed for a new all-weather interdiction avenue for the U. S. Border Patrol.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Just to the north of the old border fence, a new barrier is being constructed. The fence and an all-weather road over the rugged terrain west of the San Ysidro port of entry had been delayed for more than 10 years because of environmental and social concerns.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

A mesh fence panel is lifted into position on the new border fence. The fence is about 50 yards north of the old rusty barrier that runs through Goat Canyon in the distance.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Posts for the new border fence are being installed across a notorious smuggling corridor know as Goat Canyon. The barrier will eventually continue up the new excavated cut in the distant hill.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Looking north from Tijuana to the lights of downtown San Diego, Smuggler’s Gulch is illuminated by portable stadium lights and a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Seen from the Mexican side, the old rusty border fence is dwarfed by a new 150-foot berm that spans Smuggler’s Gulch. For decades this canyon was a passageway for drug smugglers and illegal immigrants going north from Tijuana to the U.S.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)