New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS, a city of Louisiana, U.S.A., situated on the east bank of the Mississippi river about 107 m. from its mouth. It was originally on a bend in the river and from that fact its popular name, "Crescent City," was derived.

Physical

soil is an alluvial deposit from the river and, therefore, has its greatest elevation at the river bank, where the ground behind the levees is from 1 o to 15 ft. above the mean level of the Gulf of Mexico; but the lower parts of the city are below gulf level. Built on the narrow ridge of land at the river bank, the growing city first expanded along the river front and later, the cypress swamps between the river and Lake Pont chartrain having been cleared and drained, covered a distance of from 4.5 to 7.3 miles. The river approaches New Orleans flowing eastward, turns rather abruptly to the south at the upper municipal limits, then eastward as it passes the modern city, and finally northward in one of the sharpest bends to be found in the lower river, near the site of the original city, or vieux carve.

The difficulties involved in building a city on such a site as that of New Orleans were great. Drainage, sanitation and a satisfactory water supply were realized nearly two centuries after the establishment of the first settlement, and in the interim yellow fever and cholera took frightful tolls. Modern engineering and sanitation finally triumphed, and to-day New Orleans is one of the healthiest cities of the world.

The boundaries of the parish of Orleans and the city of New Orleans are the same, embracing an area of 196 sq. miles. The boundary line is very irregular, but may be given approximately as Lake Pontchartrain on the north, the Rigolets and Lake Borgne on the east, the parish of St. Bernard and the Mississippi river on the south, and Jefferson parish on the west. The city gradually expanded by spreading along the higher lands near the river hank.

New Orleans is noted for its mild and balmy winters; the summers are uniformly warm but extreme heat is unknown, and the highest temperature recorded by the weather bureau is F, while a temperature of F is seldom reached, owing to the cool breezes from the Gulf of Mexico. Mean temperature is : January . . . • July February . . . 57.2 August $z•3 March . . . . 63.0 September . . . • 79.4 April . . . . . 68.9 October . . . 7o•4 May . . . . . 75.2 November . . . . 61.9

June . . . . 8o•9 December . . . . 55.7 Yearly average . . ....... • 69.3 The rainfall averages 56.77 in., well distributed through the year.

population of New Orleans was 339,075 in 191o, 387,219 in 1920 and 458,762 in 1930. The increase in the decade 1920-30 was or 18.5%; 14.2% in 1910-20. Every country in Europe is represented in the inhabitants. Among the foreign-born the Italians are the most numerous ; other nationalities of great numerical strength are Irish, Germans, English and French. The French, because of the creole element, feel perfectly at home, speaking their own language, and living among sympathetic surroundings. The creoles are the descendants of the French and Spanish settlers of Louisiana. When the city passed under the American flag the Americans built up a quarter for themselves, up stream from the vieux carve, the upper bound ary of which was Canal street. The line is not as strictly drawn now as in earlier years, as many creoles have settled in the newer portions of the city and some Americans have moved to the French quarter. This change has been more pronounced in the third decade of the loth century during which time a lively interest in the old quarter has developed into a movement to preserve those buildings and other historical sites of the city.

Water Supply, Drainage and

entire city, except for its levees, is below the river high water mark while a large portion of it is below that of Lake Pontchartrain. Combined with these difficulties New Orleans has heavy rainfall; occasionally over 3 in. in one hour, 7 in. in 5 hours and 9 in. in 12 hours, having been experienced. As a result of the occasional excessive rainfalls, it has been necessary to provide large canal systems to convey the water to and from the pumping plants, and eight pumping stations for the removal of storm water have been built. A number of these drainage canals are built of reinforced con crete, lined and covered with masonry and are often under the roadway of streets; some of the open canals are lined with creosoted timber. The largest of the concrete canals are 25 ft. or more in width and when running full, have 9 ft. or more depth of water. To keep the water moving in these canals the city has an aggregation of low lift pumps with a capacity of over 7,000,000,00o gal. per day.