The Pittsburg–Chartierville Border Crossing connects the towns of
Chartierville, Quebec, and
Pittsburg, New Hampshire
Pittsburg is the largest town by area in New England, located in Coös County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 800 at the 2020 census. It is the northernmost town in New Hampshire. U.S. Route 3 is the only major highway in the t ...
. The crossing can be reached by
U.S. Route 3
U.S. Route 3 (US 3) is a United States Numbered Highway running from Cambridge, Massachusetts, through New Hampshire, to the Canada–United States border near Third Connecticut Lake, where it connects to Quebec Route 257.
Massachu ...
on the American side and by
Quebec Route 257 on the Canadian side.
Description

The Pittsburg–Chartierville Border Crossing is the only crossing on the
Canada–United States border
The international border between Canada and the United States is the longest in the world by total length. The boundary (including boundaries in the Great Lakes, Atlantic, and Pacific coasts) is long. The land border has two sections: Canada' ...
in the state of
New Hampshire
New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
, which is the only state in the United States with only one international border crossing. It serves about 10,000 vehicles a year.
Pittsburg is notable for being the largest township (in terms of land area) in the
continental United States
The contiguous United States, also known as the U.S. mainland, officially referred to as the conterminous United States, consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the District of Columbia of the United States in central North America. The te ...
. Although there was a U.S. border station at
Connecticut Lakes as far back as the 1930s, the facility consisted of a small one-room structure, and later a mobile home. The U.S. did not have a permanent inspection facility at the border until 1960, and the northernmost stretch of
U.S. Route 3
U.S. Route 3 (US 3) is a United States Numbered Highway running from Cambridge, Massachusetts, through New Hampshire, to the Canada–United States border near Third Connecticut Lake, where it connects to Quebec Route 257.
Massachu ...
remained unpaved until about 1970. In 2012, the U.S. built a new border inspection facility. The
Fourth Connecticut Lake Trail starts near the parking lot of the border station.
Incident related to millennium attack plots

In the late 1990s, some low-traffic border crossings between the U.S. and Canada were equipped with a
Remote Video Inspection System (RVIS), which could be used to admit low-risk travelers to the U.S. during times that a station did not have staff on-site. As the Pittsburg border station was only staffed during limited hours, it received an RVIS, which entered operation on January 4, 1999. Using RVIS, the station was being operated remotely from 4 p.m. to 8 a.m. in December 1999.
[
At 2:35 a.m. on December 15, 1999, an Italian-born Canadian woman named Lucia Garofalo tried to use the RVIS to enter the U.S., traveling with a man lacking identification who claimed to be a Pakistani-born Canadian citizen, and a trunk full of packages that were later suspected to be explosives.][ The remote inspector denied them entry and instructed them to report to a staffed border crossing; they instead retreated into Canada.][ Garofalo had, on December 6, successfully entered the U.S. at the same crossing with two passengers, then re-entered Canada on December 12 via the ]Derby Line–Stanstead Border Crossing
The Derby Line–Stanstead Border Crossing is a border crossing station on the Canada–United States border, connecting the towns of Stanstead, Quebec and Derby Line, Vermont. It connects Main Street ( U.S. Route 5) in Derby Line with Q ...
with her son and a man claiming to be an Algerian national who lacked identification; Canadian authorities allowed them to enter Canada and reported the incident to U.S. officials.[
On December 19, Garofalo tried to enter the U.S. at the Beecher Falls–East Hereford Border Crossing with a man who claimed to be Algerian—when an initial inspection detected her recent failed entry, a search was conducted, which found that the man had a forged French passport; both were arrested.][ Garofalo was later found to have ties to Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian member of ]al-Qaeda
, image = Flag of Jihad.svg
, caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions
, founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden
, leaders = {{Plainlist,
* Osama bin Lad ...
who was arrested by Customs Service officials in Port Angeles, Washington
Port Angeles ( ) is a city and county seat of Clallam County, Washington, Clallam County, Washington (state), Washington, United States. The population was 19,960 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the most populous city in t ...
, on December 14, 1999, when he tried to enter the U.S. with explosives hidden in the trunk of his car. It was later established that Ressam planned to bomb Los Angeles International Airport
Los Angeles International Airport is the primary international airport serving Los Angeles and its Greater Los Angeles, surrounding metropolitan area, in the U.S. state of California. LAX is located in the Westchester, Los Angeles, Westcheste ...
(LAX) on New Year's Eve
In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve refers to the evening, or commonly the entire day, of the last day of the year, 31 December, also known as Old Year's Day. In many countries, New Year's Eve is celebrated with dancing, eating, drinkin ...
1999.
At Beecher Falls, Garofalo's vehicle contained no explosives, but trace elements were detected, suggesting that it previously had contained explosive material.[ What role, if any, Garofalo may have had with the millennium attack plots remains unclear.] Garofalo was prosecuted on alien smuggling charges, largely on the strength of the audio recording of her declarations via the RVIS. Statements she made that evening, which included that her traveling companion was her brother, were proven to be untrue. At that time, the Pittsburg border station was the only one of the 163 U.S. land border stations where both audio and video of primary inspections were recorded. Garofalo pleaded guilty in February 2000 and was allowed to return to Canada; she received a sentence of two years' probation in May 2000. Ultimately, it was determined that the man arrested with Garofalo was actually Moroccan—he remained in jail until May 2000, when he was sentenced to two years' supervised release and was returned to Canada. While there was no failure of the RVIS, this incident prompted the Immigration and Naturalization Service
The United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was a United States federal government agency under the United States Department of Labor from 1933 to 1940 and under the United States Department of Justice from 1940 to 2003.
Refe ...
to cease using it. The program as a whole was suspended following the September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
, and was decommissioned in November 2002.
See also
* List of Canada–United States border crossings
This article includes lists of border crossings, ordered from west to east (north to south for Alaska crossings), along the Canada–United States border. Each port of entry (POE) in the tables below links to an article about that crossing.
On th ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pittsburg-Chartierville Border Crossing
Canada–United States border crossings
Geography of Estrie
U.S. Route 3
1949 establishments in New Hampshire
1949 establishments in Quebec
Buildings and structures in Coös County, New Hampshire