Imagine having to drive 200 miles round trip, or having to take a rowboat across a lake on your way to work. That's exactly what some people have had to do in the year since the closure of the Lake Champlain Bridge. Our C.J. Spang has more on the one-year anniversary.

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CROWN POINT, N.Y. -- Lake Champlain Bridge blew sky high in late December, but local residents have had to get by without it for even longer.

"I mean, our lives were literally turned upside down," said Crown Point resident Jean Breed.

Exactly one year after the bridge closed, residents gathered at the Crown Point Historic Site near the old bridge for a ceremony and a meet and greet.

"Today's important because we just don't want people to lose sight of what can happen to a community and how it can be so devastated by the closure of just one bridge," said Karen Hennessy of the Lake Champlain Bridge Coalition.

And you might not believe what some people did - just to get by.

"I was driving 1,012 miles a week," Breed said. "To get to my job, to keep my benefits going, and I was certainly not alone."

"I have two part-time jobs in Vermont, and I brought my row boat down day one," said Crown Point resident Michael Breed. "I was rowing across. Some days it was a little rough, but it was only a half mile one way. The only problem was, don't fall in the water. But, that was my solution."

But as difficult as things have been for people on both sides of the water, they say it could have been much worse.

"I have friends that work in Minnesota," Breed said. "One of them was on the bridge in Minnesota. He went across the bridge, 10 minutes later, that bridge went down and people were killed. Nobody was killed here. Nobody was killed here. It's been an inconvenience. It's been a hardship for a lot of people, but we're all still here."

The new bridge is slated to open by the end of September 2011, and residents say they'll all be here for a big celebration.