Massena is located in St Lawrence County 20 miles north of Potsdam along Highway 37 near the Canadian border on the banks of the Grass River in the
Northern Region of the state. An 80 foot drop in the St. Lawrence River along the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway System has been a two-fold boon to Massena. Two locks, the Bertrand Snell and Dwight D. Eisenhower, were built to overcome the descent, while the Moses-Saunders Power Dam was constructed to take advantage of it.
