Canusa Street

Canusa Street
Length 0.38 mi (0.61 km)
Location Beebe Plain, Vermont (United States)
Stanstead, Quebec (Canada)
West end Route 247 / Rue Principale (Canada)
Beebe Plain Road (US)
East end Route 247 / Rue Railroad
Canusa Street, known as rue Canusa in French, runs through the middle of Beebe Plain, forming the northern border for Vermont, and dividing the Vermont and Québec sides of the village. In this photograph, the houses on the left are in the United States and those on the right are in Canada.

Canusa Street or, in French, rue Canusa is the only part of the Canada–United States border that runs down the middle of a street. The street separates Beebe Plain, Vermont from the Beebe Plain area of Stanstead, Quebec and is a part of Quebec Route 247.

History

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.

Today at the west end of Canusa are the Canadian and American customs. Immediately facing them is a solid granite building, which is also cut in two by the border. 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.


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