All communities require an efficient transportation network to draw in the factors and goods they need to survive, and competitively transport out the items they sell to the nation and the world. Few communities have the movement of people and products so indelibly stamped on its character as does Clinton County, New York.
Transportation in the region predates New York statehood. Native American tribes established trade routes that traversed the region. The Five Nations of the Iroquois travelled by land and by water in pursuit of trade among themselves for a millennium before the arrival of European traders.
Four hundred years ago this summer, the French Explorer Samuel de Champlain navigated this region on behalf of France. By the seventeenth century, his expeditions, and the expeditions of those that came before and after him, opened up new avenues for trade with early French and Dutch merchants. Beaver pelts were exported from the region in return for metal utensils, blankets, and guns offered Native American trappers. Trade conflicts ignited the Beaver Wars between rival Native American tribes and the French, and set in motion alliances that would be forged and broken for centuries.
The Iroquois managed the first link in a supply chain that ended in European markets. The waterways of Lake Champlain and the Saint Lawrence and Hudson Rivers were central to this early trade. Trade was further expanded between this region by beaten paths, lakes, rivers, and man-made canals over the next two hundred years. The region became prominent once again in conflict and in trade between the English colonists, French settlements in Montreal and Quebec City, and American revolutionaries through Albany, the gateway to the Northeast and New England.
With the end of the War of 1812, and the many battles fought on Lake Champlain, the region could resume a pattern of trade between the Upper and Lower Canada colonies and the new nation of the United States. These trade patterns continue to thrive today.
A few decades after the war of 1812, railroads began connecting the region. The Plattsburgh and Montreal was built in 1852, the Whitehall and Plattsburgh in 1866, and the D&H opened up the region from 1875 and 1880 to transport the iron ore from the rich mines in Lyon Mountain. The ore from the Adirondack region was renowned for its qualities, and even supplied the steelworks that built the Golden Gate Bridge.
Cars and trucks began to replace waterways and railroads in the twentieth century. In 1968, State Route 9, the main North-South highway, was augmented by the Adirondack Northway (I-87), a 176 mile section of the interstate highway system. The new interstate highway was immediately denoted by Parade magazine to be nation's most scenic highway. It was also a commercial success, with truck traffic between Canada and the Northeast accelerating continuously. In the dozen years between 1996 and 2008, it showed an increase of 60%.
Increased security concerns post-9/11, in addition to the growing commerce through this region, resulted in a $150 million investment in border facilities at the main Lacolle-Champlain crossing. The I87 corridor is now the state-of-the-art truck crossing coming into the United States.
As truck traffic continues to grow, planners and economic developers are increasingly looking to augment the transportation network with improved rail and air cargo service. The New York State Department of Transportation recently completed a corridor study that recommended high speed (150+ mph) rail service in addition to smart and green highway improvements.
Meanwhile, the new Clinton County International Airport is taking off. Passenger embarkations and debarkations have increased 22 fold in just two years. Plattsburgh International Airport handled about 44,000 enplanements in 2008, and growth is expected to rise by 20,000 each year. The growth of air traffic through the new airport facility, with its 12,500 foot runway and free traveler parking, is being rewarded with additional federal monies that will allow for still more growth. Major aerospace companies are now eyeing the world class airport facilities. Should they arrive, they will join the major railcar manufacturer Bombardier, and Nova Bus, a major bus manufacturer that have already established plants in Clinton County.
Clinton County even had a short history with automobile manufacturing. The luxury Lozier automobile was built in Plattsburgh between 1900 and 1910, and was entered in the first running of the Indianapolis 500 in 1911. The car officially finished second, but many believe that a scoring error meant it should have won. Notwithstanding that controversy, the Lozier set a world speed record for a stock car, completing one hundred miles in less than an hour and fifteen minutes.
With such an illustrious history of pathway, waterway, railway, airway, and highway transportation, this region is really on the move!