Our region's traditional economic strengths are rooted in the paper products, tourism and plastics industries. Its leading employers currently include Bombardier, Georgia Pacific, Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital, Clinton Correctional Facility at Dannemora, and Plattsburgh State University.

More recently, however, the community has madedramatic gains in the transportation field. Besides its major rail car manufacturing plant in Plattsburgh, Bombardier operates warehousing and test track facilities at PARC. PARC's tenants include several companies that manufacture rail car components ranging from air conditioning and pneumatic doors to seating and wheel assemblies. Additional industrial growth is taking place at PARC in composites (Composite Factory, GSM), market research (Macro International), fiber optics (PrimeLink), rail car testing (Bombardier) rail car wheel assembly manufacturing (TransEd), and precision instrument calibration (Exelon), among others.

Bombardier Rail builds rail cars for theNew York City Transit System, the Long Island Railroad and for metropolitan rail systems in other parts of the U.S.

PrimeLink brought its fiber optic cable through the heart of the Adirondack Mountains from Albany to Montreal.