New Orleans, Louisiana by Erik Hastings

New Orleans

New Orleans

Travel Show Live Host Erik Hastings tours New Orleans, Louisiana, one of America’s most sensual destinations, rich with history, culture, architecture, cuisine, music, and 24-hour entertainment. The French Quarter, Arts District, Garden District, Riverfront, and Downtown, are open for business and going strong with great attractions and values for visitors.

New Orleans The Crescent City

The history of New Orleans, Louisiana traces the city’s development from its founding by the French, through its period under Spanish control, then back to French rule before being sold to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase. It has been one of the most important cities in the South for most of its history.

All cities’ destinies are largely determined by geography and geology, but New Orleans’ more so than most. It would, in fact, be impossible to understand the history and economic development of New Orleans without some knowledge of its unique situation and site. For, New Orleans’ economic fate–indeed, its raison d’etre–as well as the pattern of its internal physical growth have been shaped by the Mississippi River. From its beginnings, New Orleans has been a city wed to river and ocean; an almost natural dock for the transshipment of goods.

Pierce Lewis, perhaps its most knowledgeable scholar, describes New Orleans as the “inevitable city on an impossible site.” His reasons for saying so were as obvious to early explorers as to modern geographers and geologists. A glance at the map of North America reveals that the continent’s interior is drained by a single river system–the Mississippi. From the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, from the Rockies to the Appalachians, the Mississippi with its vast network of tributaries, particularly the Ohio and Missouri Rivers, provides a natural waterway system for moving people and goods across the midcontinent of North America and down the Mississippi to its outlet on the Gulf.

Another glance at the North American map reveals that there should be a city at the mouth of so splendid a transportation system. Any city so strategically situated could control the trade between the vast interior of North America and the rest of the world; and a city in so strange a situation might even determine the political future of North America. These facts were as obvious to seventeenth century French explorers as they were to Thomas Jefferson, who said of New Orleans: “There is one spot on the globe, the possessor of which is our natural and habitual enemy. It is New Orleans.”

The French had established themselves in the norther part of North America (Canada) in the mid-seventeenth century by securing control of the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes. Paris sought to limit the English to the eastern coast of the continent by claiming the Mississippi and its tributaries, thereby gaining control of the interior of North America. The key to securing the Mississippi was to control access to its mouth on the Gulf of Mexico, but the French explorers discovered there was a problem. From the mouth of the Mississippi to a point about 200 miles upstream (Baton Rouge), there was no ground high enough to provide a natural site for a city. While the great river demanded a splendid port city, it seemed to provide no place for one.

N E W  O R L E A N S

New Orleans is a city in southern Louisiana, located on the Mississippi River. Most of the city is situated on the east bank, between the river and Lake Pontchartrain to the north. Because it was built on a great turn of the river, it is known as the Crescent City. New Orleans, with a population of 496,938 (1990 census), is the largest city in Louisiana and one of the principal cities of the South. It was established on the high ground nearest the mouth of the Mississippi, which is 177 km (110 mi) downstream. Elevations range from 3.65 m (12 ft) above sea level to 2 m (6.5 ft) below; as a result, an ingenious system of water pumps, drainage canals, and levees has been built to protect the city from flooding. The city covers a land area of 518 sq km (200 sq mi). New Orleans experiences mild winters and hot, humid summers. Temperatures in January average 13 deg C (55 deg F), and in July they average 28 deg C (82 deg F). Annual rainfall is 1,448 mm (57 in).

C O N T E M P O R A R Y  C I T Y

The population of New Orleans, including Anglos, French, Blacks, Italians, Irish,Spanish, and Cubans, reflects its cosmopolitan past. The CAJUNS, or Acadians,are descendants of French emigres expelled from Nova Scotia (or Acadia) during the 18th century. They speak their own French dialect. The port is one of the world’s largest and ranks first in the United States in tonnage handled. Major exports are petroleum products, grain, cotton, paper, machinery, and iron and steel. The city’s economy is dominated by the petrochemical, aluminum, and foodprocessing industries and by tourism.

The most important annual tourist event is MARDI GRAS, which is celebrated for a week before the start of Lent. The Superdome, an enclosed sports stadium, attracts major sporting events and is an element in achieving the city’s position as a leading convention center. One of the legacies of the six-month-long 1984 World’s Fair, held in New Orleans, is a new convention center. New Orleans is noted for its fine restaurants, for its Dixieland jazz, and for its numerous cultural and educational facilities. TULANE (1829), Dillard (1869), and Loyola(1849) universities are major institutions of higher learning. The French Quarter, or Vieux Carre (French for “old square”), is the site of the original city and contains many of the historic and architecturally significant buildings for which New Orleans is famous.

H I S T O R Y

New Orleans was founded in 1718 by Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, sieur de Bienville, and named for the regent of France, Philippe II, duc d’Orleans. It remained a French colony until 1763, when it was transferred to the Spanish. In 1800, Spain ceded it back to France; in 1803, New Orleans, along with the entire Louisiana Purchase, was sold by Napoleon I to the United States. It was the site of the Battle of New Orleans (1815) in the War of 1812. During the Civil War the city was besieged by Union ships under Adm. David Farragut; it fell on Apr. 25, 1862.

Duration : 0:4:1

New Orleans

Read more…