Open border brings Canadians back to New York
The lines began to form before midnight Sunday at U.S. border facilities. Closed since March 2020, the U.S.-Canadian border reopened Monday allowing fully vaccinated Canadians into the United States.
“Our nighttime shift was very busy,” said Steven Lawrence, executive director of the Ogdensburg Bridge and Port Authority. “It was like the traffic you would see on the eve of a Canadian holiday.”
Most of the traffic appeared to be people with campers and trailers, Mr. Lawrence said, speculating that they would be heading south for the winter.
“A lot of them did stop at Walmart,” Mr. Lawrence said.
From midnight to 2 p.m. 1,300 vehicles crossed the Ogdensburg-Prescott International Bridge, he said. In all of October there were just 9,500 crossings.
The situation at the Thousand Islands Bridge was similar with a steady stream of pickup trucks, cars and recreational vehicles, many of which had bicycles hanging from the back, heading south.
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