New Orleans, Louisiana

The city of New Orleans, Louisiana, is steeped in history and intrigue. The birthplace of jazz is known for its food and entertainment—in particular the annual carnival of Mardi Gras—but the city is also a major port on the Mississippi River at the Gulf of Mexico.

Landscape

New Orleans sits on about 180 square miles of bowl-shaped terrain, ranging in altitude from 15 feet above to five feet below sea level. Located in southeast Louisiana on the Mississippi River, and between 20 and 100 miles from the Gulf of Mexico, depending on tides and rainfall, the city has repeatedly had to bulk up its levees, flood walls, and pumping systems.

As with southern Florida, New Orleans' climate is subtropical, due to its latitude. Winter into early spring brings the drier, cooler months, and the peak of tourist season. High temperatures in March are around 70 degrees Fahrenheit, with lows in the 50s. However, the summer months bring high heat and humidity. The average high in July is 91 degrees, and the temperature can climb as high as 100. Average rainfall is 63 inches per year, sustaining the city's canopy of oak, cypress, magnolia, and pine trees.

June through September is hurricane season in the gulf region, which regularly tests the floodwalls of New Orleans. Protective measures were lacking during storms in 1915 (200 killed) and 1947 (forty-seven killed). In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina overwhelmed the city's levees and floodwalls, which were in disrepair, and eventually flooded 80 percent of the city. Between 2006 and 2018, the Army Corps of Engineers repaired and rebuilt the Greater New Orleans Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System (HSDRRS). In late August 2021, the HSDRRS successfully protected New Orleans and the surrounding parrishes from Hurricane Ida. In 2020, Louisiana was hit by three hurricanes and two tropical storms. On October 28, the eye of Hurrican Zeta passed directly over New Orleans. The storm caused $180 million in commercial losses alone in the city.

Fire ravaged the city during its formative years. The 1788 fire destroyed 856 buildings, including much of the French Quarter. Then under Spanish control, the city was rebuilt with more Spanish-style architecture, but another fire in 1794 destroyed more than 200 buildings. Following the second fire, the city government ordered reconstruction with fire-resistant materials, chief among them brick. The combination of French, Spanish and even Indian architectural styles remains a part of New Orleans' distinctive character today.

People

From a population of 10,000 in 1804, the city mushroomed to a population of more than 100,000 by 1840. This was the largest population in the South, as cotton plantations fed the local economy.

The problems caused by the city's location took time to overcome. In the 1850s, thousands died of mosquito-spread yellow fever. The epidemics were not curtailed until after 1900, when New Orleans' plumbing and sewers were modernized to eliminate standing water in the swampy city. The region's low-lying status makes it particularly vulnerable to flooding and other effects of global climate change. About half of the city is below sea level, and the levees that protect property also contribute to erosion and subsidence because they prevent sediment from replenishing the marshes and wetlands.

According to a 2021 US Census Bureau estimate, the population of New Orleans is 369,749, down from a high of 600,000 at the end of the 1960s. The suburban/metropolitan area tops 1 million people, many of whom moved out of the city in the 1970s and 1980s. Black Americans make up 57 percent of the population, with White Americans accounting for 33.4 percent, Asian Americans 2.8 percent, Hispanics or Latinos 5.7 percent, and American Indian and Alaska Natives 0.2 percent.

The southern half of Louisiana has traditionally been Catholic. Of the 712 churches in New Orleans, an estimated 60 percent are Roman Catholic. The Haitian slave revolt and revolution of the early 1800s brought many Haitians to New Orleans. Their influence, along with the continued influx of enslaved people from Nigeria and other areas of Africa, brought Voodoo religious traditions to the city that slowly merged with Catholicism. While many still practice Voodoo in the city, it is now more akin to new age Catholicism, and is mainly geared toward gaining the attention of tourists.

Economy

New Orleans was an important port city by 1850. Enslaved people from Africa were the chief import during the 1800s, while the chief export was cotton. The city initially floundered after the Civil War ended the slavery-based economy, and it fell back on other, semi-legal enterprises: prostitution and gambling. Presaging a trend still overtaking the nation at the turn of the twenty-first century, Louisiana enacted a statewide lottery in 1868. The proliferation of gambling houses in the city led to the creation of the Mardi Gras carnival, an event that lead to the city's formal recognition as a gambling and tourism mecca akin to Las Vegas.

The Louisiana Superdome sports stadium, opened in 1975, is the home of the New Orleans Saints pro football team and has held seven Super Bowl games. During Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, the Superdome provided shelter to thousands of people. It was also damaged by the storm and was shuttered for months. In 2011, it was renamed the Mercedes Benz Superdome. Ten years later, it was renamed again, becoming Caesars Superdome. New Orleans has hosted the Super Bowl a total of ten times as of 2024.

However, tourism is only about the fifth-largest sector of the area economy in terms of dollar value. Oil and gas exploration and shipping still bring large receipts to the local economy. Shell, Chevron, Texaco, and Exxon Mobile all have coastal operations headquartered in New Orleans, although other companies moved to the Houston, Texas, area when oil prices dipped in the late 1980s. Defense and aerospace firms include Lockheed Martin Michoud Space Systems, where the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is building the Orion mission rockets. These enterprises, along with agriculture and cruise ships, make the port of New Orleans a huge beneficiary and driver of the local economy. In 2022, the port was ranked fifth in the US in terms of total tonnage.

Local universities are some of the city's largest employers. Tulane University, with its nationally recognized medical research facilities, employs more than 5,000 people. The area is also home to the University of New Orleans, Southeastern Louisiana University, Loyola, and Southern University at New Orleans.

Most observers agree that tourism remains the target for economic growth in New Orleans. The late 1990s saw the approval of Harrah's Casino, which created more than 2,500 jobs. The city is trying to broaden its appeal beyond Mardi Gras. The festival brings an estimated 2 million people to the city every year. In 2021, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic forced the city to cancel parades and large gatherings to mitigate the spread of the virus during the festival. By 2023, the tourism industry of the city was rebounding, with employment nearly at 2019 levels and hotel room nights booked at 82 percent of pre-pandemic averages.

Landmarks

New Orleans is famous for its European-style architecture, its food, fun, and music—all of which is perhaps best displayed in the historic French Quarter. Bourbon Street, where the bars never close, is the city's best-known area.

Nearby is longstanding Preservation Hall, which has hosted concerts by famed area performers including Fats Domino, the Neville Brothers, Wynton Marsalis, and Harry Connick Jr.

The Quarter's Gallier House, built in 1857, was fictionalized by local author Anne Rice as the home of vampires in her best-selling novel Interview with the Vampire. Rice's doll collection is housed at the huge St. Elizabeth's Orphanage. Cafe du Monde, established in 1862, features the city's signature blend of coffee and chicory.

Designated in 1854, City Park features a collection of 250 historic oak trees, many older than the park itself. The park is the fifth-largest city park in the United States. It is home to the New Orleans Museum of Art ,which includes impressionist works, as befits a French-inspired city, and a collection of Faberge eggs. A horseracing track near City Park is the site of New Orleans's annual Jazz Fest. Taking place in the spring just before things get really hot in New Orleans, the festival is one of the largest such events in the world.

The Audubon Zoo features a Louisiana Swamp (Bayou) exhibit complete with cypress trees and white alligators. The affiliated Aquarium of the Americas is home to more than 15,000 specimens of fish, birds, and reptiles displayed in natural habitats.

Chalmette Battlefield at English Turn is where Andrew Jackson, with the help of Jean Lafitte, repelled the British in the Battle of New Orleans.

In the 1980s, the riverfront area known as the Warehouse District was redeveloped with new condominiums and retail shops.

New Orleans Voodoo is a museum that chronicles the city's fascination with Voodoo and the occult, including the history of famed practitioners Doctor John (the self-proclaimed Senegalese prince of the 1850s) and Voodoo queen Marie Laveau.

History

New Orleans was once home to the Houma tribe of Native Americans. They shared the flood-prone land with many mosquitoes and alligators.

As with other cities in Louisiana Purchase states, New Orleans bounced between French and Spanish control before becoming part of the United States. The French arrived first in the late 1600s. In 1718, French brothers John Baptiste and Pierre le Moyne colonized the area, naming it "Nouvelle Orleans" after France's Duke of Orleans. The settlement along the Mississippi became known as the French Quarter. The city became the capital of the French territory of Louisiana in 1722. The Spanish took control in 1763, although the city did not see a Spanish governor until 1766.

France resumed control of the city in 1801, but soon after Napoleon sold the entire Louisiana Territory to President Thomas Jefferson. New Orleans officially became incorporated as an American city in 1805. In the Battle of New Orleans, Andrew Jackson defeated British forces that were attempting to take the city during the War of 1812.

Louisiana was part of the Confederacy during the Civil War, with its trade in enslaved people and cotton being one of the foundations of the Southern economy. The poorly defended city of New Orleans was captured without a battle by Union troops in 1862.

Technology helped New Orleans continue to grow in the early 1900s, when its European-style open gutters were abandoned and a pumping system to drain the city was created.

New Orleans has a legacy of colorful politicians, the most famous being former Louisiana governor and US Senator Huey Long. Known for promising voters a "chicken in every pot," Long was shot dead in the statehouse in 1935. His successor, Richard Leche, was convicted of fraud and sentenced to ten years in prison. City politics were cleaned up with the election of "Chep" Morrison to the mayor's office in 1946.

The history of New Orleans is also the history of the creation of jazz, perhaps America's first unique art form. The music of America during the nineteenth century consisted of brass-heavy military-style marches, but slaves brought African rhythms that accompanied the Voodoo ceremonies that were openly allowed in New Orleans. By the early twentieth century, the fusion of the two styles was led by early Dixieland jazz practitioners including Buddy Bolden, Nick LaRocca (who inspired Louis Armstrong), and Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton.

Trivia

• Since the city is partially below sea level, New Orleans has cemeteries with vaults set above ground, to prevent floating caskets.
• As befits its subtropical climate, there are many insect pests in New Orleans. Mosquitoes are still a problem, as are Formosa termites. The city has many specially capped holes that are used to regularly check for termite infestations.
• Famed authors from the Crescent City (so-named because it follows a curve in the Mississippi) include Truman Capote and Anne Rice.
• Both Las Vegas and New Orleans allow bars to remain open 24 hours per day.
• The Aquarium of the Americas holds more than one million gallons of water.

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