Introduction
The “Queen of the South,” New Orleans, Louisiana, is a city whose prosperity can be directly attributed to the Mississippi River. As a gateway to America, it has thrived as a shipping and commercial center, contributing to the industrialization of the United States from its early days to the present.
Cityscape
New Orleans is situated in southeastern Louisiana, 110 miles (180 kilometers) north of the Gulf of Mexico. The city’s terrain, at an average altitude of 5 feet (1.5 meters) below sea level, is devoid of any hills and is interrupted by numerous bayous and canals. The city is surrounded by marshy swamps and numerous bodies of water—the most prominent being Lake Pontchartrain. New Orleans’ location within an elbow of the Mississippi River has occasioned the popular name “crescent city.”
Orleans Parish (county) is bounded by the Mississippi to the east and Jefferson Parish to the west. Lake Pontchartrain and St. Bernard Parish provide the northern and southern boundaries. The city is divided into east and west banks by the river. The less populated west bank is joined to the central business district on the east bank by two main bridges, the Huey P. Long Bridge (opened 1935) and the twin bridges named the Crescent City Connection (formerly the Greater New Orleans Bridge; opened 1958 and 1988).
The subtropical climate is extremely humid with an average temperature of 60° F (16° C) from October through March and 77° F (25° C) from April through September. The city receives an average of about 61 inches (155 centimeters) of rain annually. New Orleans’ large amounts of rain, low elevation, and proximity to the lake and river create a significant chance for flooding, hurricanes, and tidal surges.
Massive levees, some as high as 25 feet (8 meters), have been constructed along both banks of the river and surrounding the lake. In addition, an extensive pumping and drainage system channels water into the underground sewer system. Together the 22 pumping facilities stationed throughout the city are able to transport more than 29 billion gallons of water a day. In 2005, however, waters produced by Hurricane Katrina breached several levees, overwhelming the drainage system and causing extensive flooding in the city.
People and Culture
Most of New Orleans’ people are African American, while about a third are white. The city’s population began declining in the 1960s. The white population decreased significantly: whites made up almost two thirds of the population in 1960. Conversely, the parishes surrounding the city showed steady increases in population. Because most of these parishes have a very limited African American population, these numbers indicate a white move out of the urban area similar to that in other major cities of the United States. After Hurricane Katrina, the city’s population decreased much further, with a greater decline in African American residents.
Culture, Education, and Recreation
New Orleans is home to an enviable number of cultural entities for a city of its size. The city is home to the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and was the first in the United States to establish a resident opera company. Opera has been supported since the early 1800s, when productions were staged four nights a week in English, Italian, and French. The New Orleans Opera presents a full season of opera productions each year. Dance performances are presented by the New Orleans Ballet Association. In addition to supporting the performing arts, New Orleans boasts a nationally recognized art museum. The New Orleans Museum of Art is located in City Park a few minutes from the downtown area and has acquired a large collection of French art.
As the birthplace of jazz, the city offers much musical entertainment in the tradition of such jazz greats as Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, and Wynton Marsalis. The annual New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival features hundreds of local and national musicians performing everything from gospel to Dixieland to bop. The event also showcases New Orleans food and arts and crafts.
New Orleans is home to numerous institutions of higher learning. Tulane University, founded in 1834 as the Medical College of Louisiana, expanded in 1889 to include programs in the humanities, architecture, engineering, and law. Loyola University, a Roman Catholic coeducational school, was established in 1912. The University of New Orleans opened in 1958, and its main campus lies in the heart of the city. Programs outside the usual academic fields were developed to support the local business community. Founded in 1915, Xavier University is the only Roman Catholic university in the United States that has a predominantly African American student enrollment. Delgado Community College opened in 1921 as a vocational school. In 1958 it began programs for technicians at the junior college level. It now also offers programs in several academic areas including business, humanities, science and allied health, engineering, and industrial technology.
With New Orleans’ temperate climate, outdoor recreation is a significant part of the city’s daily life. The extensive City Park has a golf course, stables, and tennis courts as well as the New Orleans Museum of Art. Uptown, across St. Charles Avenue from Tulane University, is Audubon Park and Zoological Gardens. Originally the site of the ill-fated World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition in 1884, the area was renamed Audubon Park in 1886 in honor of John James Audubon, the famous painter of birds. The New Orleans Zoological Society was founded after World War I, and in 1924 the zoo’s first elephants arrived and an aquarium, now featuring Caribbean reef and seahorse exhibits, was donated.
No picture of New Orleans culture is complete without mentioning the city’s cuisine. From informal backyard crab boils to elegant six-course meals, dining in New Orleans is more than a daily routine for sustenance. It is a way of life as well as major entertainment. This passion resulted in a wide variety of restaurants that draw visitors from around the world. From casual neighborhood cafés to elegant hotel eateries, New Orleans restaurants offer some of the country’s finest cuisine and include local Creole and Cajun specialties such as red beans and rice and crawfish.
When New Orleanians are not thinking or talking about food, they are most likely watching the Saints play football. After an intense effort by civic leaders and private businessmen, a National Football League franchise was brought to the city in 1967. In 2010 the Saints won their first Super Bowl—an important symbolic step on the road to recovery from Hurricane Katrina. Efforts to bring the Super Bowl to the city were rewarded in 1970 and eight times in following years. In August 1975 New Orleans’ 273-foot- (83-meter-) high domed stadium, christened the Louisiana Superdome, staged its grand opening. It is home to the New Orleans Saints as well as to a multitude of conventions, meetings, and sports events, including the New Year’s Day Sugar Bowl. In addition, New Orleans has been home to an Arena Football League team, the VooDoo, since 1998. The city also added a professional men’s basketball team, the Pelicans, formerly the Hornets of Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2002.
Mardi Gras
Mardi Gras, or carnival, is as much a part of life in New Orleans as politics, weather, and economics. Families spend the entire year and thousands of dollars preparing for the Mardi Gras season. In many ways the krewes, or organizations that stage the Mardi Gras extravaganzas, are the backbone of the city’s society. The celebration also attracts millions of tourists to the city, generating millions of dollars in business.
Mardi Gras, which literally translated means “fat Tuesday,” begins in early January and culminates on the Tuesday before the Roman Catholic season of Lent, 40 days before Easter. Although Mardi Gras has been celebrated in the city since 1766, the large-scale parades did not begin until 1857. Many krewes hold extravagant balls after their parades. Most organizations choose a king, queen, and court from the families of their more prominent members. The choice is a carefully guarded secret until Fat Tuesday or the day the krewe parades and stages its ball. The elaborate costumes, crowns, and rounds of parties associated with the honor of being chosen “royalty” cost huge sums.
Economy
The economy of New Orleans has historically been regulated by its location on one of the most productive river systems in the world. Its key location on the Mississippi and its close proximity to the Gulf of Mexico encourage an economy based largely on shipping and port-related industry. The port and its industry are major employers.
New Orleans imports and exports millions of tons of cargo each year. The imports include petroleum products, chemicals, rubber, and coffee. The leading exports are agricultural products such as grain and soybeans and petroleum and petrochemicals. North of New Orleans the Mississippi provides the resources necessary for extensive petrochemical refineries.
Following the sudden increase in the cost of foreign oil in the early 1970s, the demand for domestic petroleum products allowed New Orleans to regain its status as the largest port in the United States. The port system of New Orleans and Baton Rouge, which lies upriver, ranks among the largest in the world in amount of tonnage moved. New Orleans is the hub of the nation’s largest inland waterway system for barge transportation and the only offshore facility in the country capable of unloading large tankers. The port also has become a major docking area for cruise ships.
The metropolitan area expanded its industrial production in the late 20th century to provide a much needed stable economic base. Companies representing industries as diverse as food processing, oil and gas production, the manufacture of fabricated metals and machinery, aerospace facilities, and printing and publishing have located offices and production facilities in the New Orleans area.
New Orleans is also a major supplier of fresh seafood for the continental United States. The 5 1/2-mile (9-kilometer) intracoastal waterway joins Lake Pontchartrain to the port, providing local fishermen with a convenient means of transporting seafood to the larger national market.
The Michoud Assembly Facility of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), established in 1961, produces space exploration vehicles. The region also is becoming an employer in the service sector. The fields of health, entertainment, business, and convention and hotel services are growing rapidly.
New Orleans’ wealth of historical buildings, museums, theaters, and nightspots draws visitors from all over the world. The Vieux Carré, or French Quarter—with its street-front Creole houses, iron balconies, and sizzling nightlife—is probably New Orleans’ main attraction. The city also has cultivated a large retailing market, drawing consumers from throughout the gulf states. The building and refurbishing of major hotels in the central business district has placed New Orleans among the top convention centers in the United States. The hospitality industry is important to the city’s economy. After Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and caused devastating flooding of the city, the tourism sector rebounded quickly.
Government
The smallest in area but most densely populated of Louisiana’s parishes, or counties, is Orleans, comprising New Orleans and its suburbs. A dual political system consists of both a city council and a board of parish officers.
The city of New Orleans is governed by a mayor, a chief administrative officer, and a seven-member city council. The mayor is administrator of 14 municipal departments and oversees the affairs of the council. The administrative officer prepares budgets and coordinates city relations with the state and federal governments. One council member is elected from each of the five districts and two from the city at large. They serve a four-year term.
Parish officials include such elected officers as the district attorney and members of the board of assessors and the parish school board. They make up the legal body of the parish. Prior to 1870 the mayor and council presided over the city, while parish officials handled the affairs of the parish as a whole. A legislative act of 1870 consolidated Orleans Parish into the city’s legal system, but parish officers are under no obligation to obey the demands of the city government. Although often criticized, this dual system provides a positive system of checks and balances.
History
Early History
The first inhabitants of southeastern Louisiana were nomadic American Indians. They followed the Mississippi River, fishing the bayous and river for fish, shrimp, oysters, and crabs, and farmed the swampy land for 10,000 years before the first white settlers arrived.
For more than two centuries France and Spain passed ownership of the area back and forth. While it was discovered by the Spanish in the 16th century, Sieur de La Salle claimed the Louisiana Territory for France in 1682, naming it for King Louis XIV of France. The site for the city of New Orleans was chosen in 1718 by Sieur de Bienville, who named it the capital of the French Empire of the New World.
Bienville envisioned New Orleans becoming a great commercial center. This happened but not without many obstacles. The early settlers battled deadly floods, storms, and yellow fever epidemics plus a constant barrage of insects, snakes, and alligators. In the 20th century a spillway was built above the city to reroute floodwaters from the Mississippi River into Lake Pontchartrain. The ongoing battle against the danger of flooding, however, continued into the 21st century.
Many of the early colonists were criminals and political exiles. Others that followed were lured by trickery from France and later from Germany to the muddy, tropical settlement. The first buildings of the city were crude structures of cypress slabs and mud chink topped with thatched roofs. In spite of the primitive homes and muddy surroundings, the wealthier of the residents filled their homes with finery brought from France and dressed accordingly in silk and satin.
The inclination toward a lavish display of wealth was encouraged during the French rule of New Orleans. Balls, parties, and banquets became everyday occurrences in the muddy frontier settlement. In addition, a tradition for corruption and graft was established, thus perpetuating the city’s already notorious reputation of decadence and immorality.
At the end of the Seven Years’ War in 1763, France lost Canada and all its possessions east of the Mississippi River to the English, giving them free passage the length of the river. New Orleans, however, had been given by Louis XV to Charles III of Spain in a secret treaty.
Six years later, when the Spanish took possession of the city, New Orleans was floundering economically. When the Creoles, as the French settlers were known, learned of the new governorship, they were so outraged that a group of prominent men led a rebellion against Governor Don Antonio de Ulloa, forcing him to flee the city in 1768. The rebellion was put down, however, by an Irishman in service to Spain, Don Alexander O’Reilly. The leaders were publicly executed, and O’Reilly became governor.
Although Spain governed New Orleans for the rest of the 18th century, Creole society remained relatively unaffected. The city’s language, social customs, and habits remained totally French. Despite social resistance, New Orleans thrived economically under Spanish rule as it never had during French possession.
Fires in 1788 and 1794 destroyed most of the old city. Under the direction of Spanish Governor Don Francisco Luis Hector, a new city was constructed in the Spanish architectural style. Most of the current-day French Quarter dates to this time.
In spite of their prosperity during Spanish possession, the Creoles began appealing to France for deliverance as early as 1779. Napoleon persuaded Spain to cede back Louisiana to France in the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso. Gleaning Napoleon’s strong interest in the Mississippi Valley, United States President Thomas Jefferson developed an interest in the area as well. In 1803 Napoleon sold New Orleans and the entire Louisiana Territory to the United States for 15 million dollars. The purchase doubled the size of the nation and prompted a great increase in westward migration.
In the early 1800s the city enjoyed widespread prosperity. Steamboats, flatboats, clippers, and schooners went down the Mississippi carrying goods to faraway places—and returned loaded with new products. Wharves bustled with activity. Shops, homes, and hotels sprang up at a dizzying rate. By 1849 the city was the third largest in the United States, with a population of 102,000. It ranked first in exports. Amid this golden era of prosperity, however, three separate feuding factions lived in what amounted to three separate cities. The Creoles, the newly arrived Americans, and a third group composed of French, mulattoes, and Germans all went their separate ways with their own civic rulers and social activities.
In spite of glittering new buildings, sanitation conditions were deplorable. Open drainage ditches and backyard cisterns bred yellow fever–carrying mosquitoes. There was no provision for public education and virtually no culture beyond the opulently garish balls and parties. The tradition of decadence begun by the French was alive and thriving.
Recent History
The 20th century brought more change. A levee system and spillway were finally devised to keep out the ever-threatening river. The yellow fever plagues came to an end, and modern sanitation was introduced. After World War II modern technology enabled skyscrapers to be built on the marshy terrain. The river was still teeming with commerce, but ships now carried petroleum and steel rather than cotton and sugar. The programs of the colorful and controversial Louisiana Governor Huey P. Long brought paved roads, public education, and bridges over the river. He made a strong mark on the city and state that is still felt.
Although New Orleans enjoyed phenomenal prosperity for almost two centuries, new problems emerged in the 1980s that continued into the 21st century. Economic diversification has been slow. Public education ranks in the bottom percentile of the country. Unemployment is widespread. A large segment of the city’s African American population resides in the many federal housing projects or in declining neighborhoods with seemingly little hope of escape. In addition, Hurricane Katrina struck the Louisiana coast in 2005, causing some of New Orleans’ levees to breach and allow water to inundate the city. Floodwaters covered as much as 80 percent of New Orleans, killing hundreds of residents and displacing thousands more.
In spite of these overwhelming problems, the city’s residents are undaunted. Tourism has continued to thrive. The once bustling riverfront now bustles with different kinds of activity. Glittering retail markets have opened. The convention center hosts conventions year-round, and under new leadership the port of New Orleans has realigned itself competitively in the world market. Population (2020) 383,997; metropolitan area (2010) 1,167,764.
Additional Reading
Blount, Roy, Jr. Feet on the Street: Rambles Around New Orleans (Crown Journeys, 2005).Brothers, Thomas. Louis Armstrong’s New Orleans (Norton, 2006).Gessler, D.H. Very New Orleans: A Celebration of History, Culture, and Cajun Country Charm (Algonquin, 2006).McKinney, Louise. New Orleans: A Cultural History (Oxford Univ. Press, 2006).Torres, J.A. Hurricane Katrina and the Devastation of New Orleans (Mitchell Lane, 2006).
