Canusa Street (french: rue Canusa) is the only part of the

Canada–United States border The border between Canada and the United States is the longest international border in the world. The terrestrial boundary (including boundaries in the Great Lakes, Atlantic, and Pacific coasts) is long. The land border has two sections: Can ...

that runs down the middle of a street. The street separates

Beebe Plain, Vermont Beebe Plain is an unincorporated community in the town of Derby in Orleans County, Vermont, United States, which extends into the municipality of Stanstead, Quebec, Canada. The village is divided by the Canada–United States border between Ca ...

, in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, from the Beebe Plain area of

Stanstead, Quebec Stanstead is a town in the Memphrémagog Regional County Municipality in the Estrie region of Quebec, located on the Canada–United States border across from Derby Line, Vermont. The Town of Stanstead was created in 1995 by the merger of the ...

, in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, and is a part of

Quebec Route 247 Route 247 is a north/south highway on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River in the Estrie region of Quebec. Its northern terminus is in Magog, Quebec, Magog at the junction of Route 112 (Quebec), Route 112 and its southern terminus is in Sta ...

. The name Canusa is formed of Can- for Canada and -usa for the United States of America (USA).

History and description

Local legend claims that a group of rather drunken surveyors, when given the task of determining the United States–Canada border line in the region (nominally at 45.00°N), decided to place the border right through the center of the village along what is now Canusa Street. On the current cadastral graphic matrix, however, the border line is drawn along the southern border to the street, suggesting that it is entirely located within Canada. At the west end of Canusa Street is the

Beebe Plain–Beebe Border Crossing The Beebe Plain–Beebe Border Crossing is a border crossing station on the Canada–United States border. It connects Rue Principale (Quebec Route 247) in Beebe Plain, Quebec (a former municipality, since 1995 part of the town of Stanstead) w ...

. Immediately facing the customs houses, located at the end of the street, is a solid granite

line house A line house is a building deliberately located so that an international boundary passes through it. One such building on the boundary between the United States and Canada is the Haskell Free Library and Opera House in Stanstead, Quebec, and De ...

. This building (built as a store in the 1820s) was for a time the world's only international post office. It had one postmaster, but two doors and two postal counters, each serving customers from a different country.

Residents

An outcome of this unique geographical situation is that the drivers to the south are in the

, while drivers to the north are in

. The American and Canadian families living on the street sometimes maintain friendships or relations. Before the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

, crossing between sides of the road on foot was simple. But now, it is necessary to report to the border crossing office and ones who do not risk a fine. This complicates the lives of the residents.

References

External links

Pictures of Canusa Avenue

Canusa Street: Where the dotted yellow line is the official US-CAN border
via

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{{coord, 45, 0.3501, N, 72, 8.3074, W, display=title Derby, Vermont Roads in Estrie Roads in Vermont Stanstead, Quebec Transportation in Orleans County, Vermont Canada–United States border crossings