1.
New Orleans
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New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The population of the city was 343,829 as of the 2010 U. S. Census, the New Orleans metropolitan area had a population of 1,167,764 in 2010 and was the 46th largest in the United States. The New Orleans–Metairie–Bogalusa Combined Statistical Area, a trading area, had a 2010 population of 1,452,502. The city is named after the Duke of Orleans, who reigned as Regent for Louis XV from 1715 to 1723, as it was established by French colonists and it is well known for its distinct French and Spanish Creole architecture, as well as its cross-cultural and multilingual heritage. New Orleans is also famous for its cuisine, music, and its celebrations and festivals, most notably Mardi Gras. The city is referred to as the most unique in the United States. New Orleans is located in southeastern Louisiana, straddling the Mississippi River, the city and Orleans Parish are coterminous. The city and parish are bounded by the parishes of St. Tammany to the north, St. Bernard to the east, Plaquemines to the south, and Jefferson to the south and west. Lake Pontchartrain, part of which is included in the city limits, lies to the north, before Hurricane Katrina, Orleans Parish was the most populous parish in Louisiana. As of 2015, it ranks third in population, trailing neighboring Jefferson Parish, La Nouvelle-Orléans was founded May 7,1718, by the French Mississippi Company, under the direction of Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, on land inhabited by the Chitimacha. It was named for Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, who was Regent of the Kingdom of France at the time and his title came from the French city of Orléans. The French colony was ceded to the Spanish Empire in the Treaty of Paris, during the American Revolutionary War, New Orleans was an important port for smuggling aid to the rebels, transporting military equipment and supplies up the Mississippi River. Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid, Count of Gálvez successfully launched a campaign against the British from the city in 1779. New Orleans remained under Spanish control until 1803, when it reverted briefly to French oversight, nearly all of the surviving 18th-century architecture of the Vieux Carré dates from the Spanish period, the most notable exception being the Old Ursuline Convent. Napoleon sold Louisiana to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, thereafter, the city grew rapidly with influxes of Americans, French, Creoles, and Africans. Later immigrants were Irish, Germans, and Italians, Major commodity crops of sugar and cotton were cultivated with slave labor on large plantations outside the city. The Haitian Revolution ended in 1804 and established the republic in the Western Hemisphere. It had occurred several years in what was then the French colony of Saint-Domingue
2.
Louisiana
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Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Louisiana is the 31st most extensive and the 25th most populous of the 50 United States and its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the state in the U. S. with political subdivisions termed parishes. The largest parish by population is East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana is bordered by Arkansas to the north, Mississippi to the east, Texas to the west, and the Gulf of Mexico to the south. Much of the lands were formed from sediment washed down the Mississippi River, leaving enormous deltas and vast areas of coastal marsh. These contain a rich southern biota, typical examples include birds such as ibis, there are also many species of tree frogs, and fish such as sturgeon and paddlefish. In more elevated areas, fire is a process in the landscape. These support a large number of plant species, including many species of orchids. Louisiana has more Native American tribes than any other state, including four that are federally recognized, ten that are state recognized. Before the American purchase of the territory in 1803, the current Louisiana State had been both a French colony and for a period, a Spanish one. In addition, colonists imported numerous African people as slaves in the 18th century, many came from peoples of the same region of West Africa, thus concentrating their culture. Louisiana was named after Louis XIV, King of France from 1643 to 1715, when René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle claimed the territory drained by the Mississippi River for France, he named it La Louisiane. The suffix -ana is a Latin suffix that can refer to information relating to an individual, subject. Thus, roughly, Louis + ana carries the idea of related to Louis, the Gulf of Mexico did not exist 250 million years ago when there was but one supercontinent, Pangea. As Pangea split apart, the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico opened, Louisiana slowly developed, over millions of years, from water into land, and from north to south. The oldest rocks are exposed in the north, in such as the Kisatchie National Forest. The oldest rocks date back to the early Tertiary Era, some 60 million years ago, the history of the formation of these rocks can be found in D. Spearings Roadside Geology of Louisiana. The sediments were carried north to south by the Mississippi River
3.
St. Charles Streetcar Line
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The St. Charles Streetcar line is a historic streetcar line in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is the oldest continuously operating line in the world. It is operated by the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority, officially the St. Charles Streetcar line is internally designated as Route 12, and it runs along its namesake street, St. Charles Avenue. It is the busiest route in the RTA system as it is used by local commuters. On most RTA maps and publications, it is denoted in green, the St. Charles line starts uptown, at South Carrollton Avenue and South Claiborne Avenue. It runs on South Carrollton Avenue through the Carrollton neighborhood towards the Mississippi River, then near the river levee turns on to St. Charles Avenue.2 miles. With the exception of Carondelet Street and the portion of St. Charles where the line runs in the curbside lane. Planning for the line began in 1831, and work began as the New Orleans and Carrollton Rail Road in February 1833, the second railway in Greater New Orleans after the Pontchartrain Rail Road. Passenger and freight services by steam locomotives began on September 26,1835, originally without a dedicated right-of-way, Service began as a suburban railroad, since Carrollton was at that time a separate city, while areas along the route were still mostly undeveloped. Two locomotives New Orleans and Carrollton were supplied from England by B, as the area along the line became more urbanized, objections to the soot and noise produced by the locomotives increased, and transport was switched to cars that were powered by horses and mules. Experimental systems included overhead cable propulsion, and several designs by Dr. At the same time, it was extended from the corner of St. Charles, in 1900, the St. Charles and Tulane streetcar lines were extended on Carrollton Avenue and connected together, resulting in a two-way belt line. In 1922 the New Orleans & Carrollton Rail Road was merged into New Orleans Public Service Incorporated, in 1950, plans were made to fill in the New Basin Canal, which the Belt Lines crossed on a bridge on Carrollton Avenue. The right of way was to be used for the Pontchartrain Expressway, rather than rebuild tracks in the underpass, the Tulane and St. Charles lines were separated, and Tulane Avenue was converted to a trolley coach line. During construction, the St. Charles line continued to all the way on Carrollton Avenue from St. Charles Avenue to the underpass construction site at Dixon Street. In 1972 automatic fareboxes were introduced, and the job of a conductor was eliminated from the streetcars. The line still has one of the Ford, Bacon & Davis 1894 vintage cars in running condition, although it is not used for passenger service, it stays busy with work operations such as track sanding. The rest of the lines cars date from 1923–24, in 1973, preservationists successfully listed the St. Charles line on the National Register of Historic Places
4.
Mansion
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A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word mansio dwelling, the English word manse originally defined a property large enough for the parish priest to maintain himself, but a mansion is no longer self-sustaining in this way. Manor comes from the same root—territorial holdings granted to a lord who would remain there—hence it is easy to see how the word Mansion came to have its meaning, within an ancient Roman city, patrician dwellings might be very extensive, and luxurious. Such mansions on one hill in Rome became so extensive that the term palatial was actually derived from the name Palatine hill and is the origin of palace. Following the fall of Rome the practice of building unfortified villas ceased, today, the oldest inhabited mansions around the world usually began their existence as fortified castles in the middle ages. As social conditions slowly changed and stabilised fortifications were able to be reduced and it became fashionable and possible for homes to be beautiful rather than grim and forbidding allowing for the development of the modern mansion. In British English a mansion block refers to a block of flats or apartments designed for the appearance of grandeur, in many parts of Asia, including Hong Kong and Japan, the word mansion also refers to a block of apartments. In Europe, from the 15th century onwards, a combination of politics, as a result, many were transformed into mansions without defences or demolished and rebuilt in a more modern, undefended style. Due to intermarriage and primogeniture inheritance amongst the aristocracy, it common for one noble to often own several country houses. These would be visited throughout the year as their owner pursued the social. Many owners of a house would also own a town mansion in their countrys capital city. These town mansions were referred to as houses in London, hotels in Paris and it might be noted that sometimes the house of a clergyman was called a mansion house. This was a period of social change, as the educated prided themselves on enlightenment. The uses of these edifices paralleled that of the Roman villas and it was vital for powerful people and families to keep in social contact with each other as they were the primary moulders of society. The rounds of visits and entertainments were a part of the societal process. State business was discussed and determined in informal settings. Times of revolution reversed this value, in the great houses of Italy, the number of retainers was often even greater than in England, whole families plus extended relations would often inhabit warrens of rooms in basements and attics. It is doubtful that a 19th-century Marchesa would even know the number of individuals who served her
5.
Uptown New Orleans
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It remains an area of mixed residential and small commercial properties, with a wealth of 19th-century architecture. It includes part or all of Uptown New Orleans Historic District, historically, uptown was a direction, meaning movement in the direction against the flow of the Mississippi. After the Louisiana Purchase, many settlers from parts of the United States developed their homes and businesses in the area upriver from the older Creole city. The very broadest definition of Uptown, historically, included everything upriver from Canal Street, in the narrowest usage, as a New Orleans City Planning neighborhood, Uptown refers to an area of only some dozen blocks centering on the intersection of Jefferson and St. Charles Avenues. Neither of these is what most New Orleanians of recent generations usually mean by uptown, the boundaries of the federal Uptown New Orleans Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, are the River to S. Claiborne Avenue and Jackson Avenue to Broadway. Uptown was developed during the 19th century, mostly from land that had plantations in the Colonial era. Several sections were developed as separate towns, like Lafayette, Jefferson City, Greenville. For a time in the early 19th century most of Uptown was part of Jefferson Parish until the City of New Orleans annexed them, in 1874, New Orleans added the towns of Lafayette, and Carrollton. Uptown has always had a sizable African American population, census data shows that ethnically and racially mixed blocks were common in the 19th and early 20th centuries, which continues to be the case with much of Uptown. Several small settlements grew up at steamboat landings a few miles upstream of New Orleans, the original Lafayette began as one of these. It was subdivided and incorporated in April 1833 as the City of Lafayette, the center of town was around Jackson Avenue. Lafayette was also the site of the original Jefferson Parish court house, the New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad, also incorporated in 1833, constructed a spur from the main line along Nyades Street down Jackson Avenue. Lafayette annexed Faubourg Delassize in 1844, bringing that citys boundary with New Orleans to Toledano Street, in 1852, New Orleans annexed Lafayette, moving the New Orleans city limit upriver to Toledano Street. The seat of Jefferson Parish moved to the City of Carrollton, however, the boundary between Jefferson Parish and Orleans Parish remained at Felicity Street until 1870, when it was moved to Lowerline Street. Cornelius Hurst, developer of Faubourg Hurstville, sold a block to the City of Lafayette for a cemetery in 1833. Now known as Lafayette Cemetery No,1, the land is bounded by Washington Avenue, 6th Street, Coliseum Street and Prytania Street. In 1972, this cemetery was added to the National Register of Historical Places, the Fund helped in the creation of a preservation plan with assistance from American Express. In 2010, the Louisiana Landmarks Society rated Lafayette Cemetery No.1 as one of the nine most endangered New Orleans landmarks and it said that two large oak trees threatened to destroy 30 tombs
6.
Quercus virginiana
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Quercus virginiana, also known as the southern live oak, is an evergreen oak tree native to the southeastern United States. Though many other species are called live oak, the southern live oak is particularly iconic of the Old South. Many very large and old specimens of live oak can be today in the deep southern United States. A large number of names are used for this tree, including Virginia live oak, bay live oak, scrub live oak, plateau oak, plateau live oak, escarpment live oak. It is also often just called live oak within its area, but the full name southern live oak helps to distinguish it from other live oaks. This profusion of common names partly reflects an ongoing controversy about the classification of live oaks. Some authors recognize as distinct species the forms others consider to be varieties of Quercus virginiana. Matters are further complicated by southern live oaks hybridizing with both the two species, and also with dwarf live oak, swamp white oak, Durand oak, overcup oak, bur oak. Live oak can be found in the growing and reproducing on the lower coastal plain of the Gulf of Mexico. The range of live oak continues to expand inland as it moves south, growing across southern Georgia, live oak grows along the Florida panhandle to Mobile Bay, then westward across the southernmost two tiers of counties in Mississippi. Live oak grows across the third of Louisiana, except for some barrier islands. Live oak’s range continues into Texas and narrows to hug the coast until just past Port Lavaca, the species reaches its northwestern limit in the granite massifs and canyons in Southwestern Oklahoma, a rare remnant from the last glaciation. Live oak grows in soils ranging from heavy textures, to sands with layers of materials or fine particles. Live oak can be found dominating some maritime forests, especially where fire periodicity, live oak is found on higher topographic sites as well as hammocks in marshes and swamps. In general, southern live oak hugs the coastline and is found more than 300 feet above sea level. Live oaks grow across a range of sites with many moisture regimes – ranging from dry to moist. Live oak will survive well on dry sites and in wet areas, effectively handling short duration flooding if water is moving. Good soil drainage is a key component for sustained live oak growth
7.
Garden District, New Orleans
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The Garden District is a neighborhood of the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. The National Historic Landmark district extends a little farther, the area was originally developed between 1832 and 1900 and is considered one of the best-preserved collections of historic mansions in the Southern United States. The 19th-century origins of the Garden District illustrate wealthy newcomers building opulent structures based upon the prosperity of New Orleans in that era, the Garden District is located at 29°55′40″N 90°05′05″W and has an elevation of 3 feet. According to the United States Census Bureau, the district has an area of 0.21 square miles. 0.21 square miles of which is land and 0.00 square miles of which is water, the Garden District Association defines the boundaries as both sides of Carondelet Street, Josephine Street, both sides of Louisiana Avenue, and Magazine Street. As of the census of 2000, there were 1,970 people,1,117 households, the population density was 9,381 /mi². As of the census of 2010, there were 1,926 people,1,063 households and this whole area was once a number of plantations, including the Livaudais Plantation. It was sold off in parcels to mainly wealthy Americans who did not want to live in the French Quarter with the Creoles and it became a part of the city of Lafayette in 1833, and was annexed by New Orleans in 1852. The district was out by New Orleans architect, planner. Originally the area was developed only a couple of houses per block, each surrounded by a large garden. In the late 19th century, some of large lots were subdivided. This has produced a pattern for much of the neighborhood, of any given block having a couple of early 19th-century mansions surrounded by gingerbread-decorated late Victorian period houses, thus, the Garden District is now known for its architecture more than for its gardens per se. A slightly larger district was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1974, Gilmour – Parker House,1520 Prytania Street, erected in 1853 for Thomas Corse Gilmour, English Cotton Merchant, Isaac Thayer, architect-builder. Sold by Gilmour heirs in 1882 to John M. Parker, whose son, John M. Parker, Jr. lived here and later served as Governor of Louisiana. The dining room extension with bay window was added by Mrs. Sarah Roberta Buckner, widow of John M. Parker, residence of Walter Denegre 1892-1929, Louise S. McGehee School since 1929. Adam-Jones House,2423 Prytania Street, erected for John I, adams, merchant, who in 1860 purchased the Garden District part of the former plantation of Jacques Francois de Livaudais, built the Adam-Jones House and made it his residence until 1896. Subsequent family ownerships were Ferdinand Reusch, Mrs. William Preston Johnston, restored in 1961-1962 by Mrs. Hamilton Polk Jones. Womens Guild of the New Orleans Opera Association,2500 Prytania Street, Dr. and Mrs. Herman de Bachelle Seebold purchased the home in 1944 and donated the mansion, furnishings and art in 1965 to the Womens Guild of the New Orleans Opera Association
8.
Canal Street, New Orleans
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Canal Street is a major thoroughfare in the city of New Orleans. Up until the early 1800s, it was the Creoles who lived in the Vieux Carré, after the Louisiana Purchase, a large influx of other cultures began to find their way into the city via the Mississippi River. A number of Americans from Kentucky and other Midwestern states moved into the city, along the division between these two cultures, a canal was planned. The canal was never built but the street took its place received the name. Furthermore, the median of the street known as the neutral ground. To this day, all medians of New Orleans streets are called neutral grounds, one end of Canal Street terminates at the Mississippi River. Canal Streets other terminus is in Mid-City at a collection of cemeteries, slightly offset from the Mid-City end is the beginning of Canal Boulevard, which extends to the shore of Lake Pontchartrain via the Lakeview neighborhood. Throughout its length, Canal, which runs east and west, serves as a line for cross streets running north and south. The street has three lanes of traffic in both directions, with a pair of tracks in the center. Canal Streets downtown segment serves as the hub of the public transit system or RTA, with numerous streetcar. Canal Street is often said to be the widest roadway in America to have called a street. For more than a century, Canal Street was the shopping district of Greater New Orleans. Local department stores Maison Blanche, D. H, the department stores began as sellers of fabric, notions, and accessories, with extensive floor space and glass windows. As elevators and escalators allowed for multi-floor department stores, the stores were enlarged, cities — and it received a boost in 1983 with the completion of Canal Places retail component. However, national trends disfavoring downtown retail finally caught up with Canal Street — with a key assist from the economic depression of the mid-80s. One Canal Place has three levels which are occupied by The Shops at Canal Place. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a fire inflicted heavy damage to the Saks Fifth Avenue store, the mall reopened in February 2006, and a completely-remodeled Saks reopened in November. One Canal Place Office Tower is a Class A commercial office building managed by Corporate Realty and it is adjacent to the Westin New Orleans Hotel
9.
Mardi Gras in New Orleans
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The holiday of Mardi Gras is celebrated in Southern Louisiana. Celebrations are concentrated for about two weeks before and through Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, usually there is one major parade each day, many days have several large parades. The largest and most elaborate parades take place the last five days of the Mardi Gras season, in the final week, many events occur throughout New Orleans and surrounding communities, including parades and balls. The parades in New Orleans are organized by social clubs known as krewes, most follow the parade schedule. The earliest-established krewes were the Mistick Krewe of Comus, the earliest, Rex, the Knights of Momus and the Krewe of Proteus. Float riders traditionally toss throws into the crowds, the most common throws are strings of plastic beads, doubloons, decorated plastic throw cups, Moon Pies. Major krewes follow the parade schedule and route each year. Mardi Gras day traditionally concludes with the Meeting of the Courts between Rex and Comus, the first record of Mardi Gras being celebrated in Louisiana was at the mouth of the Mississippi River in what is now lower Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, on March 2,1699. Iberville, Bienville, and their men celebrated it as part of an observance of Catholic practice, the date of the first celebration of the festivities in New Orleans is unknown. A1730 account by Marc-Antione Caillot celebrating with music and dance, an account from 1743 that the custom of Carnival balls was already established. Processions and wearing of masks in the streets on Mardi Gras took place and they were sometimes prohibited by law, and were quickly renewed whenever such restrictions were lifted or enforcement waned. In 1833 Bernard Xavier de Marigny de Mandeville, a plantation owner of French descent. All of the mischief of the city is alive and wide awake in active operation. Men and boys, women and girls, bond and free, white and black, yellow and brown, exert themselves to invent and appear in grotesque, quizzical, diabolic, horrible, strange masks, and disguises. In rich confusion, up and down the streets, wildly shouting, singing, laughing, drumming, fiddling, fifeing, in 1856 six businessmen gathered at a club room in New Orleanss French Quarter to organize a secret society to observe Mardi Gras with a formal parade. They founded New Orleans first and oldest krewe, the Mystick Krewe of Comus, according to one historian, Comus was aggressively English in its celebration of what New Orleans had always considered a French festival. To a certain extent, New Orleans creolized the Americans, thus the wonder of Anglo-Americans boasting of how their business prowess helped them construct a more elaborate version than was traditional. The lead in organized Carnival passed from Creole to American just as political, in 1875 Louisiana declared Mardi Gras a legal state holiday
10.
Streetcars in New Orleans
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Streetcars in New Orleans, Louisiana have been an integral part of the citys public transportation network since the first half of the 19th century. The longest of New Orleans streetcar lines, the St. Charles Avenue line, is the oldest continuously operating street railway system in the world, today, the streetcars are operated by the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority. There are currently five operating lines in New Orleans, The St. Charles Avenue Line, the Riverfront Line, the Canal Street Line. The St. Charles Avenue Line is the line that has operated continuously throughout New Orleans streetcar history. All other lines were replaced by bus service in the period from the late 1940s to the early 1960s. Preservationists were unable to save the streetcars on Canal Street, but were able to convince the city government to protect the St. Charles Avenue Line by granting it historic landmark status, in the later 20th century, trends began to favor rail transit again. A short Riverfront Line started service in 1988, and service returned to Canal Street in 2004,40 years after it had shut down. Service on a portion of the Canal Street line was restored in December of that year, with the remainder of the line, on December 23,2007, the Regional Transit Authority extended service from Napoleon Avenue to the end of historic St. Charles Avenue. On June 22,2008 service was restored to the end of the line at South Carrollton Avenue & South Claiborne Avenue and those first operations included inter-city and suburban railroad lines, and horse-drawn omnibus lines. The first lines of city rail service were created by the New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad, in the first week of January, the company opened its Poydras-Magazine horse-drawn line on its namesake streets, the first true street railway line in the city. Then a horse-drawn line to the suburb of Lafayette, which was centered on Jackson Avenue and that line ended in the 1840s, but the Lafayette and Carrollton lines continued, eventually becoming the Jackson and St. Charles streetcar lines. As the area upriver from the city began to be built up, additional lines were created by the New Orleans, on February 4,1850, lines were opened on Louisiana and Napoleon Avenues. Like the Jackson line, these were horse- or mule-drawn cars, the Louisiana line was lightly patronized, and was discontinued in 1878. The Napoleon line continued into the next century, up until about 1860, omnibus lines provided the only public transit outside the area serviced by the New Orleans and Carrollton RR. The need was felt for a true street railway service. Toward this end, the New Orleans City RR was chartered on June 15,1860. The first line, Rampart and Esplanade, opened June 1,1861, followed in succession by the Magazine, Camp and Prytania, Canal, Rampart and Dauphine. Despite the beginnings of war, the opened and continued service on its new lines
11.
French Quarter
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The French Quarter, also known as the Vieux Carré, is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. After New Orleans was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city developed around the Vieux Carré, the district is more commonly called the French Quarter today, or simply The Quarter, related to changes in the city with American immigration after the Louisiana Purchase. The district as a whole has been designated as a National Historic Landmark and it is a prime tourist destination in the city, as well as attracting local residents. The French Quarter is located at 29°57′31″N 90°03′54″W and has an elevation of 1 foot, according to the United States Census Bureau, the district has a total area of 0.66 square miles. 0.49 square miles of which is land and 0.17 square miles of which is water, the most common definition of the French Quarter includes all the land stretching along the Mississippi River from Canal Street to Esplanade Avenue and inland to North Rampart Street. It equals an area of 78 square blocks, louis Street and North Rampart Street to the west. The National Historic Landmark district is stated to be 85 square blocks, the Quarter is subdistrict of the French Quarter/CBD Area. Faubourg Marigny Mississippi River Central Business District Iberville Tremé As of the census of 2000, there were 4,176 people,2,908 households, the population density was 8,523 /mi². As of the census of 2010, there were 3,813 people,2,635 households, most of the French Quarters architecture was built during the late 18th century and the period of Spanish rule over the city, which is reflected in the architecture of the neighborhood. Their strict new fire codes mandated that all structures be physically adjacent, the old French peaked roofs were replaced with flat tiled ones, and wooden siding was banned in favor of fire-resistant stucco, painted in the pastel hues fashionable at the time. As a result, colorful walls and roofs and elaborately decorated ironwork balconies and galleries, from the late 18th, when Anglophone Americans began to move in after the Louisiana Purchase, they mostly built on available land upriver, across modern-day Canal Street. This thoroughfare became the place of two cultures, one Francophone Creole and the other Anglophone American. The median of the boulevard became a place where the two contentious cultures could meet and do business in both French and English. As such, it known as the neutral ground. Even before the Civil War, French Creoles had become a minority in the French Quarter, in the late 19th century the Quarter became a less fashionable part of town, and many immigrants from southern Italy and Ireland settled there. In 1905, the Italian consul estimated that one-third to one-half of the Quarter’s population were Italian-born or second generation Italian-Americans, Irish immigrants also settled heavily in the Esplanade area, which was called the Irish Channel. In 1917, the closure of Storyville sent much of the vice formerly concentrated therein back into the French Quarter, was the last straw, and they began to move uptown. This, combined with the loss of the French Opera House two years later, provided a bookend to the era of French Creole culture in the Quarter, many of the remaining French Creoles moved to the University area
12.
Mississippi River
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The Mississippi River is the chief river of the largest drainage system on the North American continent. Flowing entirely in the United States, it rises in northern Minnesota, with its many tributaries, the Mississippis watershed drains all or parts of 31 U. S. states and 2 Canadian provinces between the Rocky and Appalachian Mountains. The Mississippi ranks as the fourth longest and fifteenth largest river in the world by discharge, the river either borders or passes through the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Native Americans long lived along the Mississippi River and its tributaries, most were hunter-gatherers, but some, such as the Mound Builders, formed prolific agricultural societies. The arrival of Europeans in the 16th century changed the way of life as first explorers, then settlers. The river served first as a barrier, forming borders for New Spain, New France, and the early United States, and then as a vital transportation artery and communications link. Formed from thick layers of the silt deposits, the Mississippi embayment is one of the most fertile agricultural regions of the country. In recent years, the river has shown a shift towards the Atchafalaya River channel in the Delta. The word itself comes from Messipi, the French rendering of the Anishinaabe name for the river, see below in the History section for additional information. In addition to historical traditions shown by names, there are at least two measures of a rivers identity, one being the largest branch, and the other being the longest branch. Using the largest-branch criterion, the Ohio would be the branch of the Lower Mississippi. Using the longest-branch criterion, the Middle Mississippi-Missouri-Jefferson-Beaverhead-Red Rock-Hellroaring Creek River would be the main branch and its length of at least 3,745 mi is exceeded only by the Nile, the Amazon, and perhaps the Yangtze River among the longest rivers in the world. The source of this waterway is at Browers Spring,8,800 feet above sea level in southwestern Montana and this is exemplified by the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and the phrase Trans-Mississippi as used in the name of the Trans-Mississippi Exposition. It is common to qualify a regionally superlative landmark in relation to it, the New Madrid Seismic Zone along the river is also noteworthy. These various basic geographical aspects of the river in turn underlie its human history and present uses of the waterway, the Upper Mississippi runs from its headwaters to its confluence with the Missouri River at St. Louis, Missouri. The source of the Upper Mississippi branch is traditionally accepted as Lake Itasca,1,475 feet above sea level in Itasca State Park in Clearwater County, however, the lake is in turn fed by a number of smaller streams. From its origin at Lake Itasca to St. Louis, Missouri, fourteen of these dams are located above Minneapolis in the headwaters region and serve multiple purposes, including power generation and recreation. The remaining 29 dams, beginning in downtown Minneapolis, all locks and were constructed to improve commercial navigation of the upper river
