With the bridge closed, Americans can’t go to Canada to shop with the stronger U.S. dollar; Canadians can’t come to St. Regis to gamble and buy cheaper cigarettes and gas.

In Cornwall, merchants say they’re losing about $10,000 a day. On the Canadian reservation, several shops have closed and others have laid off workers.

On the American side, business is down more than 20 percent since the closure, and the losses are growing deeper the longer it continues, said David Staddon, a spokesman for the St. Regis tribe. About one-third of reservation business comes from Canada, he said.

The impact is even more evident at the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino, where business has fallen by 25 percent, and at the Mohawk Bingo Palace, where it’s down more than 30 percent. The two tribal-owned gaming facilities employ 800 workers and help make the tribe the area’s largest employer.

“This has hit us hard. We’re just coming into the peak season for our gaming businesses,” said Chief James Ransom. “We haven’t had to lay off any workers yet, but that’s what we’re looking at, if this continues.”

A loss of gaming revenue also hurts New York state and Franklin and St. Lawrence counties, which share in the annual profits, Ransom said. Last year, that was $13 million.

The impact has been no less in neighboring Massena, a wearied village of about 11,000, five miles east of the bridge.

Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Michael Gleason said most of the village’s businesses have felt the impact. Canadian customers make up about 30 percent to 40 percent of sales for local businesses.

“It’s terrible and it gets more brutal each day it goes on,” said Gleason, adding that most business have seen sales plunge 25 percent to 50 percent. “...and when this ends, it’s going to cost them money to try and recapture that lost business.”

Gleason said for now most businesses are cutting employees’ hours to try to deal with the slowdown.

Trombino’s Restaurant is one of those businesses. Owner Steve Nadeau said he’s not sure how much longer he can operate before he will have to begin laying off some of his 14 employees.

“If you don’t have a lot of customers, you don’t need a lot of workers,” Nadeau said.

“This just came out of the blue. I’m not sure how many more economic blows this community can handle,” he added.

Over the past year, Massena has lost about 1,300 jobs with the closing of its GM parts factory and the shutdown of one of two smelters at the local Alcoa plant. Unemployment in the mostly rural county is over 9 percent.

The Massena-Cornwall crossing is the sixth busiest among the 124 crossing points stretched out along the U.S.-Canadian border, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency. The federal government just finished a $60 million upgrade of the Massena point of entry station, expanding and modernizing it. Mohawk leaders say tribal members account for 70 percent of the crossings at Massena.