On Canusa Street, locals need passports to cross the road

Two countries on one street
With the border between the US and Mexico at the centre of America’s immigration debate, the northern border with Canada seems to receive little attention. At nearly 9,000km, the US-Canada border is the world’s longest international border with more than 100 border crossings, including 15 between the American state Vermont and Canadian province Quebec. Among the most frequently used crossings in this region is between the towns of Derby Line in the US and Stanstead in Canada.
But in this area, not only does the border cut through homes and buildings, but for about half a kilometre it also runs directly down the middle of a road, now called Canusa Street, whose name is a reference to the countries it divides. It’s the only part of the entire border that runs directly on a road. Here, your neighbours and you may not live in the same country.
How the border was decided
After New France, the French colony in Canada, was captured by the British, the governors of the two colonial regions appointed a surveyor each to determine the border between them.
Between 1771 and 1773, surveyors laid down markers along the 45th parallel (the latitude 45° north of the Equator) to designate the border. Local legend has it that these surveyors, while drunk, ended up drawing a line that deviates considerably from the 45th parallel — at some places by more than 1. 5km. No one knows for certain what went wrong but in 1783, after the American Revolutionary War, a treaty cemented this boundary.
In the early 1800s, surveyors discovered the mistake and realised the border should in fact be further south into the US. But in 1842, a series of border disputes between the US and Britishcolonies in Canada ended in a treaty that retained the incorrect border.
In 1908, the UK and US set up the International Boundary Commission to survey and maintain the border. At several locations along the 45th parallel, officials were unable to find the border markers and, with locals having built structures over the line, it became difficult to identify the original boundary. Though the commission cleared a path to create a discrete border and fix past mistakes, some oddities like Canusa Street remained.
Life on Canusa street
Local historians and residents say Americans and Canadians peacefully shared the area for decades, frequently crossing the border without a second thought. Stanstead, for instance, provides water and sewage services to Derby Line, their fire departments work together, and children even crossed over to attend school.
But there have been drastic changes since 9/11. What was once an easy walk across the street is now a strict border crossing — residents must pass through border crossing offices on either side before crossing the road, even if it’s to run errands or visit neighbours. At the checkpoints, people must present their passports and vehicle registration if they are driving. The fine for crossing illegally is $5,000 and/or two years in jail in the US and $1,000 dollars in Canada.
Border agents are prompt in responding to “illegal crossings”, even inadvertent ones by tourists and pedestrians, and the area is under heavy surveillance. One local said he was arrested in 2015 for “smuggling” a pizza across Canusa Street. For some, it’s simply not worth the hassle to cross. However, many residents here are dual citizens, making the crossing much easier.
Canusa Street isn’t the only structure split by the border. Further east, in Stanstead, the border cuts through the Haskell Library and Opera House,which was intentionally built to straddle the border in 1904 to commemorate the friendship between the US and Canada. The border cuts diagonally through the building and necessitates a separate entrance on either side. But insuring and maintaining the building became difficult — after the roof was repaired recently, the library was sued for not hiring Canadian contractors to build the Canadian section of the roof. Security, too, has been a concern since within this building people can access all parts of the library freely. In 2019, a Canadian man tried to smuggle guns across the border through the library bathroom. But the library has also brought families together. After the Trump administration instated a travel ban in 2017 for several Muslim-majority countries, some Iranians had begun using the library’s reading room for family reunions.
Though it’s less common along the northern border, authorities say hundreds try to cross into the US from Canada every year. In 2021, 916 people were apprehended or expelled at the US-Canada border, including 365 in the Vermont sector. Rather than cross the treacherous Rio Grande river in the south, some choose to fly to Canada and pay a smuggler to show them where to cross.
Source: Perry Walker (Youtube), Center for Land Use Interpretation, media reports