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.
Canada: year-round (8:00–0:00 PT / 7:00–23:00 AKT / tele-video reporting after hours.) U.S.: open but unstaffed, roads connect only to Canada
Persons may legally enter the US without reporting to inspection, as there is no U.S. inspection station. (The Hyder station permanently closed c. 1970s.)
Canada: ("interim") at the north end of the new (low) north channel bridge. Travellers from the U.S. to Cornwall Island first cross the island to the Canadian POE.
This is a list of roads that cross the U.S.–Canada border that do not have border inspection services, but where travelers are legally allowed to cross the border in one or both directions.
In prior years, there were dozens of such roads where one could legally cross the border and then proceed to an open Customs office to report for inspection, but most have since been barricaded. Current requirements for reporting to CBSA or CBP for inspection are noted.
Unstaffed and open. Canadian road with access to Hozomeen Campground on Ross Lake ends about 2 miles inside the US. Persons found on the U.S. side by the U.S. Border Patrol should be prepared to provide passport identification.
Travel into Canada only permitted for those holding a Pacific Crest Trail Entry Permit (which must be applied for in advance). Entry into the US is not permitted.[7]
The only east–west crossing between Western Canada and the contiguous US, the border crossing is staffed remotely by both countries. Travelers are directed to video telephones 12.5 km (7.8 mi) from the border in Angle Inlet, Minnesota to contact the Canadian or U.S. border agencies to make their declarations.
Unstaffed and open. Road in East Richford, Vermont briefly crosses the border into Canada for approx. 1/3 mile before crossing back to US. Area is remote and has no connection to rest of Canada. No requirement to report.
International bridge built by logging company to access its private property in Maine, and is gated. No border inspection services have ever existed at this location.
3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge route, isolated line not connected to any others in North America. Former northern terminus Whitehorse, now ends at Carcross.
CN abandoned north of the border in 2001. Since 2016, approximately one mile of track is active in Canada to serve a multimodal export terminal operated by Ceres Global Ag.
The tracks were removed after BN abandoned their line from Joliette to the border in 1980; CN and BN successor BNSF still interchange at the nearby Emerson-Noyes crossing.
The U.S. stretch between Warroad & Baudette connects only through Canada. It was isolated from the U.S. rail network when Minnesota Northern Railroad abandoned the Warroad subdivision in 2009.
Once connecting to CN's nearby mainline, the Fort Frances stretch is now isolated from the Canadian rail network. Trains must cross this bridge to the U.S. to get back into Canada.
U.S. section isolated from the U.S. rail network following 1990 abandonment of Central Vermont Railway's Richford Branch. Trains in the U.S. must pass through Canada. Part of the Farnham-Richford-North Troy line.
Canadian section has always been isolated from the Canadian rail network. Trains must pass through the U.S. to connect with the rest of Canada. Part of the Farnham-Richford-North Troy line.
The American stretch is isolated from the rest of the U.S. rail network, and trains must cross this bridge to a small portion through Canada to the U.S. at Baring. Part of NBSR's St. Stephen-Calais-Woodland branch; leased from Woodland Rail.
The Canadian stretch between Mohannes and Upper Mills is isolated from the Canadian rail network, and trains must cross this bridge into the U.S. to connect to the rest of Canada. Sold to Woodland Rail by Pan-Am Railways after a short period out of service. Part of the St. Stephen-Calais-Woodland branch; leased from Woodland Rail.
The American stretch between Baring and Calais is isolated from the U.S. rail network, and trains in the U.S. must switch direction and cross this bridge into Canada to connect with the rest of the U.S. rail network. The line was disconnected from the U.S. network when Guilford Rail (Pan-Am Railways) abandoned the connecting line to Bangor in 1989; those rails were intact until torn up in the late 2000s. Part of the St. Stephen-Calais-Woodland branch; leased from Woodland Rail on the U.S. side.
This list is of point-to-point international ferry services, including those for road vehicles, passengers and rail. Other marine ports of entry are not included.
The Sidney to Anacortes ferry was suspended in 2020 due to COVID-19 concerns, and is not expected to resume until 2030 due to ship and crew shortages.[10]
Scheduled passenger trips originating in Canada from the end of May to mid-September stop at the U.S. station, which is accessed in Glacier National Park only by hiking trails.
This list includes only those crossings known to have had customs or immigration services at the border, but are now inactive. They are listed in order from west to east. Roads that are unattended, but otherwise still functioning are listed under the Unstaffed Road Crossings section.
A former border crossing, permanently closed in 1975 when the Tyee Road border crossing was expanded.[13] The former Canada border station remains and has been refurbished, located on the eastern side of the peninsula.
Canada periodically provided border services at this crossing on Chopaka Road on the foothills west of the Similkameen River until the US barricaded the road in 1964. The Government of Canada still owns the property at the border. A branch of the Great Northern Railway once crossed the border at this location, but was abandoned in the late 1930s, around the time when the US stopped providing border inspections at the location.[14]
Both were stations on the VV&E, a Great Northern Railway subsidiary. The rail track between Molson and Midway was lifted in 1936. The Bridesville customs office was established in 1907 and closed in 1939.[17] Molson ceased as a port of entry in 1941.[18] The former Customs and Immigration building is included in a museum display at Molson.
The Myncaster customs office, which handled both road and rail traffic, existed 1907–1937. Myncaster was a station on the VV&E, a Great Northern Railway subsidiary. The rail track, which did not cross the border at this location, was lifted between Molson and Midway in 1936.[19] The US ended customs services around 1955. In 1990, the crossing temporarily re-opened to permit the passage of draft horses for competitions in the area, with crossing into Canada permitted on May 14 and crossing into the US permitted on June 9.[20][21]
This crossing was on the eastern bank of the Kootenay River at the boundary. Customs operations, which began in 1902, inspected both traffic on the river and the adjacent Great Northern Railway branch. The US closed its Customs office when rail service ended in 1935, with officers relocating to the busier Roosville crossing about 5.4 miles (8.7 km) eastward. The railroad tracks were removed in 1938, and Canada closed its customs office in 1939.[22] The U.S. Post Office closed in 1950 and, what was left of the town was inundated by water in 1975 with the completion of the Libby Dam, which created Lake Koocanusa.[23]
This crossing was adjacent to the Flathead River. Canada operated a station about a mile north of the border 1904–1905 and closer to the border 1914–1923, 1926, 1931–1941 and from the mid-1940s.[24] In the 1970s, both the US and Canada constructed new border facilities to better accommodate regular recreational traffic. The crossing closed in 1996 due to flooding of the road just north of the border,[25] and the road is now gated. Both the US and Canada station buildings remain.
The Canadian port was originally called Fareham. It opened in 1932, but closed in 1939 when the highway through Del Bonita opened. It was once a favorite place to smuggle alcohol from the US into Alberta during its period of prohibition from 1916 to 1923, then from Canada during the US prohibition, which ended in 1933.[26]
Canadian port of entry opened in 1913, and closed in 1929. Customs staff moved the office to Aden, Alberta without authorization, but Canada Customs decided that was a better location anyway.[27]
The Big Beaver-Whitetail crossing was established in 1951, where traffic was never extensive. In 2009, the US would plan to use Recovery Act funds to upgrade its Whitetail border station. However, at the same time, Canada would to be planning to close its Big Beaver station. CNN ran a story on how wasteful it would be to spend millions at this crossing. The reporter sat in the middle of the empty roadway during the report.[28] Canada permanently closed their crossing on April 1, 2011, making it a southbound-only crossing. The U.S. POE closed on January 26, 2013.[29] Canada demolished the Big Beaver border station soon after closure. The U.S. border station remains, though the roadway has been barricaded.
The port of Westby, Montana was established in 1919, and was revoked by Executive Order 9382 on September 23, 1943. Shortly before being designated a POE, the town of Westby moved a short distance from North Dakota into Montana to be closer to a new rail spur, and to be in a state that permitted the sale of alcohol.[30]
This border crossing was established in 1913 to serve both highway and rail traffic. The US and Canadian Ports of Entry were abandoned in 1962 when a new highway built about a half mile to the west, bypassing the town. The former US border station was demolished in 2015, and the border community is a virtual ghost town.[31] The building that once served as the Canadian border station remains.
Throughout the early 20th century, this was among the busiest U.S.–Canada border crossings. It was the point at which the Jefferson Highway intersected the international boundary and for a few years was adorned with an elaborate archway. Traffic waned with the 1964 opening of Interstate 29 two miles to the west. The crossing was closed by Canada in 2003 (where traffic was permitted southbound only) and then by the U.S. in 2006. All road traffic must now use the Pembina–Emerson Border Crossing.
Formerly called Sextus City. The Outlaw Bridge as it was known, was built in 1917. It was closed in 1961 when a new bridge and border station were built in Grand Portage, Minnesota about 6 miles to the east. The old bridge, store, hotel and both border stations have all been demolished.
The Honeymoon Bridge collapsed on January 27, 1938, after an ice jam undermined the structure. A new bridge named the Rainbow Bridge was built a short distance to the north, and new border inspection facilities were built on both sides.
The Queenston-Lewiston suspension bridge was replaced by the transverse-named Lewiston–Queenston Bridge in 1962, which was built about 0.7 miles (1.1 km) to the south. The bridge had a single line trolley track of the Niagara Gorge Railroad in the center of 3 lanes. The US inspection plaza has been transformed into the Earl W. Brydges Artpark State Park.
The Canadian port of entry on Cornwall Island was closed June 1, 2009, due to a disagreement between the Mohawk Nation of Akwesasne and the Canada Border Services Agency regarding the arming of border services officers. A temporary port of entry was opened July 13, 2009, at the north end of the Seaway International Bridge north (high) span; it was used until the current "interim" port of entry was opened January 24, 2014. The old border station on Cornwall Island was demolished in July 2015.
The Canadian port of entry was permanently closed on April 1, 2011. For three years, this was a one-way crossing, with travelers able to enter the U.S. but not Canada at this location. Finally, the U.S. port of entry closed August 21, 2014. Both the US and Canada border stations have since been demolished.
Canada operated a port of entry at this location until the late 1950s and the building is now a private residence. The US never had a border station at this location. This crossing has been barricaded since the 1970s. Starting in 2017, thousands of migrants made unauthorized entry into Canada on foot at this location so they could request asylum.[33]RCMP established temporary facilities at this crossing to aid in processing the surge in asylum seekers.[34] Canadian regulations regarding asylum procedures were changed in 2023, ending the surge, and the temporary facilities were subsequently demolished after more than 100,000 immigrants requested asylum there.[35]
The border crossing on US 9 closed in 1967 when I-87 was completed immediately to the west. The last border station at this crossing was built in 1950 and was demolished soon after it closed in 1967.
The port of entry on Meridian Road closed around 1950. The Canada border station was demolished in the mid 1950s. The USDA has since used the old US border station as an office,[36] and the US Government at one time offered it for sale.[37]
In the 1960s and 1970s, Space Research Corporation founder Gerald Bull built his company on property his family owned on both sides of the border. As the company began building military weapons, the US established a border inspection station outside the company's south gate to inspect southbound traffic. This station also enabled US workers to legally return home after work without having to go through the North Troy border crossing, and it was not for use by the general public. Canada did not have a border station on the company's north gate. The SRC facility (and the Customs station) closed in 1980 when Bull was convicted of violating an arms embargo against South Africa.[38] Bull was assassinated in 1990.
Also known as "Province Hill", Canada Customs closed this office around 1972. The building is now purple and privately owned, but in the 1980s it was rented as a vacation home.[39] Prior to its construction in the 1960s, Canada Customs operated out of a line house across the street. This building was separated, moved about a half mile North and used as cottages.[40] The US did not have a border station at this crossing; persons entering were expected to travel to the North Troy border station for inspection.
Canada Customs had a station from the mid-1930s to 1939, then reopened in 1948. It was replaced with a new border station in the mid-1950s, which permanently closed on March 31, 1969.[41] The Canada border station was converted into a private home that has been updated substantially. There was no US border station at this location; persons entering the US here were expected to travel to the US Customs office at 70 Main Street, Newport, VT to report for inspection. That office closed in 1972, and the road was barricaded. Today the former US Customs office is home to Northeast Kingdom Community Action.
Although this was a busy road with many lakeside homes, neither the US nor Canada had a border station here. Persons entering the US here were expected to travel to the US Customs office at 70 Main Street, Newport, VT to report for inspection. That office closed in 1972, and the road was barricaded at the border at that time.
Canada provided Customs service at this road and rail crossing 1932-1937 and 1949–1953. The U.S. never had Customs services here. Persons entering the US at this location were expected to travel to the US Customs office at 70 Main Street, Newport, VT to report for inspection. That office closed in 1972, and the road was barricaded at the border at that time. Today the Canada border station is a private home.[42]
Historically, signs directed travelers to report directly to the staffed Stanhope-Norton border station. It has been barricaded since 2015. This crossing is the site of an international general store and post office, which closed around 2002.
The US operated a border inspection station between 1936 and 1953. The General Services Administration purchased approximately a half acre of land in 1931, and constructed a red brick border station. The property was sold by the US government on October 13, 1954,[43] and although the included the brick building, it has since been demolished. The parcel, and the road leading to the border from Route 1A are now private property. It is not known whether Canada had a border station on Caswell Road.
Canada still provides Customs services seasonally, but US-bound traffic is prohibited, and has been since the US border station closed in the 1960s. However until 2008, US-bound traffic was permitted to use the road to the Aroostook Valley Country Club, which is in both countries. Several Canadian properties can only be accessed via the US part of the road, which pre-dates the establishment of the border; several residents have experienced harassment from U.S. Border Patrol officers since 9/11.[44][45]
The US operated a border station at this crossing from 1941 to 1953. It was located about 500 feet west of the Canada–US border, with a private home standing between it and the border. The General Services Administration purchased the property for the border station on May 20, 1940, and placed a portable building on the property. GSA removed the building and sold the property on October 21, 1955.[46] In 1970, the Canadian Magazine declared this crossing "The best place to sneak across the border,"[47] The road was barricaded around 1976. The Aroostook River flood of 1994 killed 2 Canadian Customs officers whose vehicle was swept into a ditch by rising flood waters at this crossing.[48]
Canada stopped providing Customs services in the late 1950s and erected a sign directing travelers to the nearest open crossing. The US moved its border services to the Rivière de Chute crossing from a more central location on Ladner Road. The crossing was barricaded in the 1980s.
Border inspection services were established in 1939, and closed in 1976. The US crossing was also known as Knoxford Line and was housed in a temporary trailer. The General Services Administration deemed the US border station property to be excess on November 3, 1977, and it was subsequently sold.[49] The Canada border station has been renovated and today it serves as a private home.
This crossing was generally known as "Brown Road" on both sides of the border. The US border station was housed in a temporary trailer. It existed for only a few years, from 1941 to 1952. The US sold the 1 acre border station site on May 22, 1953.[50]
This crossing, known as "Starkey Corners" opened in 1936, and was permanently closed on May 19, 1962. The General Services Administration purchased the US border station property on May 20, 1932, and sold it (building included) on January 26, 1966.[51] The US border station is now a private home. The Canadian station was demolished in the late 1960s.
Prior to the 1950s, the Canadian road to this crossing traversed a steep hill at the border, which caused problems for winter travelers. Around 1952, Canada excavated much of the hill and built a new inspection plaza on relatively level ground. This border crossing was closed in 1985 when I-95 was completed immediately to the north.[52] The Canada border station, which was sometimes called Richmond Road, was demolished. The US border station and adjacent staff residences remain in disrepair.
This border crossing, known as "Union Corner", was permanently closed on May 19, 1962. The General Services Administration sold the US border station on August 16, 1965,[53] and it has since been used as a private home. The Canadian station was torn down in the late 1960s.
The US purchased 12,580 square feet of land on the south side of Monument Road on May 25, 1932, and spent $5,625 to erect a red brick border station, which saw little traffic. This crossing was about 2000 feet north of Monument #1, which marks the beginning of the land border between the US and Canada. On February 19, 1949, the US sold the property and the border station. The building has since been demolished.
This crossing closed in 1948 when the bridge was deemed unsafe. It was dismantled soon thereafter. The US did not have a Customs station at this crossing.
This crossing, also known as "Union Bridge", closed in 1961 when the bridge was deemed unsafe. It was dismantled in April 1963, and two men drowned in the process.[54] The US border station property was sold on May 14, 1962, and still stands as a private residence. The former Canadian border station on Milltown Boulevard in St. Stephen likewise is serving as a private home.
^Larson, Troy (May 19, 2010). "Northgate, ND." GhostsofNorthDakota. Sonic Tremor Media. Archived from the original on September 8, 2011. Retrieved on April 12, 2014.
^Farfan, Matthew (2009). The Vermont-Quebec Border - Life on the Line. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing. p. 82.
^General Services Administration, Record Group 121 (October 13, 1954). US Border Station - former - Mars Hill, ME. Waltham, MA. National Archives Identifier: 1271926.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^General Services Administration, Record Group 269 (October 21, 1955). Aroostook Falls Road Border Station - Fort Fairfield, ME. Waltham, MA: National Archives Identifier: 659904.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^"All About the Border". Canadian Magazine: 16. September 5, 1970.
^Anderson, David (April 18, 1994). House of Commons. [transcript]. Ottawa.
^General Services Administration, Record Group 269 (November 3, 1977). US Border Station - former - Mars Hill, ME. Waltham, MA: National Archives Identifier: 4723630.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^General Services Administration, Record Group 121 (May 22, 1941). Brown Road Border Station, Blaine, ME. Waltham, MA: National Archives Identifier: 1271888.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^General Services Administration, Record Group 291 (January 26, 1966). Border Station - Littleton, ME - [Project #] T-Maine-524. Waltham, MA: National Archives Identifier: 1143714.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^Hill, Tamra (October 26, 1985). "Border Station Dedicated". Bangor Daily News. Retrieved December 18, 2015.
^General Services Administration, Record Group 269 (August 16, 1965). Border Station (former) - Hodgdon, ME. Waltham, MA: National Archives Identifier: 660339.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^"2 Men Drown, 3 Rescued in St. Croix River Tragedy". Calais Advertiser. April 11, 1963.
References
Legg, Herbert (1962). Customs Services in Western Canada, 1867–1925. The Creston Review Ltd.