When the US and Canada mutually agreed in March to shut down the border to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus, no one predicted it would be closed this long. There is still no specified date for its reopening, although trade has continued between the countries.
"There's a closeness that we're definitely missing, but I can tell you not anyone that I have spoken to here wants that border opened anytime soon. We miss you, citizens of the US, but we're not comfortable opening the border," Bernadette Clement, the mayor of Cornwall, Ontario, said in an interview with CNN.
East to west, for thousands of miles, the border closure is redefining not just economic relationships, but personal lives, in ways no one expected.
"This really is going to have a long-term impact on our communities, economically, socially and on all the things that are really important to us," said Tim Currier, the mayor of Massena, New York, a "sister" community to Cornwall, just a few miles across the border on the other side of the St. Lawrence River.
No longer. The border is shut tight for any trips that are deemed "non-essential" or discretionary and that includes all recreation and tourism.
Paula Newton/CNN