Waters of Katrina History Tour

New Orleans and the Mississippi River are extricably linked. Tourism, trade and commerce are all powered by the river, lakes and the gulf that surrounds it. But the very thing that powers the city’s economy also makes it vulnerable to catastrophic floods. We will discuss this in detail

This park was named after Benjamin Latrobe who built New Orleans' first water system

This area used to be flood walls, warehouses, and industrial that ran along the Mississippi River. The area was transformed into a public park complete with lush greenery, bricked walkways, and public art, and it opened to the public before the 1984 World’s Fair, which the city hosted that year. The park was named for philanthropist Malcolm Woldenberg, who contributed to the park’s creation.

Jackson Square, or the Place d’Armes, as it was originally known, began to take its shape in August 1721, when French engineers laid out a plan for the new colonial capital of La Louisiane. We will discuss the histroy as we view this gorgeous square.

In 1791, this French Market originated as a Native American trading post along the Mississippi River. From there it continued to evolve into a cultural and commercial hub for New Orleans, as French and Spanish colonists opened the market up to ships and traders from all over the world. Over the next three centuries, immigrants from Europe, Africa and the Caribbean began to open their own venues at this French Quarter market, offering everything from Italian butcheries to African coffee and Choctaw spices.

This was the original city. When the French created a permanent colony here they initiated a century’s-long effort to pin the Mississippi within its banks by building man made levees on top of the natural ones. But the Mississippi river was not easily tamed. Even Mark Twain said “The Mississippi River will always have its own way; no engineering skill can persuade it to do otherwise. And he was right. No matter what man did to try to control the river, floods plagued each generation of New Orleanians.