New Orleans

City and river port in southeast Louisiana, USA, on the Mississippi River, and the Gulf of Mexico; population (2000 est) 484,700. It is a commercial and manufacturing centre with shipbuilding, oil-refining, and petrochemical industries. Tourism is a major activity. New Orleans is regarded as the traditional birthplace of jazz, believed to have developed from the singing and dance rhythms of the weekly slave gatherings in Congo Square, during the 18th and 19th centuries. The city was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which greatly depopulated the city. Most residents evacuated, but tens of thousands were rescued from the flood, and more than 1,500 people died. Clean-up and restoration efforts are ongoing.

Features

Notable sights and events include the French Quarter; the annual Mardi Gras festival; the Superdrome sports centre, venue of the annual Sugar Bowl American football classic; Preservation Hall, home of traditional jazz; the St Louis Cemetery No. 1; the St Louis Cathedral; the New Orleans Museum of Art; and the Louisiana State Museum.

History

American Indian groups in the area were the Quinipissa and the Tangipahoa. The town was founded by the French in 1718 and named after the duc d'Orléans, Regent of France; it was founded by Jean Baptiste Le Moyne as one of the settlements of Bienville, and later became the capital of Louisiana Territory. The city was ceded with Louisiana to Spain in 1763, fell to France in 1801, and passed to the USA with the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Incorporated in 1805, it became the capital – as New Orleans – of the new state of Louisiana from 1812 to 1830, and again from 1831 to 1849. In the Anglo-American war of 1812, American and Creole forces led by Andrew Jackson held out against General Pakenham's British troops at the Battle of New Orleans 1814–15. The original colony was centred on the Vieux Carré (the French Quarter) around Jackson Square (originally the Place d'Armes). During the American Civil War 1861–65, David Farragut, with a fleet of wooden sloops, forced the surrender of New Orleans, the Confederacy's largest and wealthiest city.

Location
New Orleans lies mainly on the left bank of the Mississippi, occupying an almost perfectly flat, low-lying site with drainage and flooding problems. An extensive series of levees (embankments) offer protection at high tide, when the river rises above the level of the city. Flood walls proved inadequate, however, against the force of Hurricane Katrina, which flooded the city in 2005.

Climate
The weather is predominantly warm and humid, and remains mild in winter, with an average temperature in January of 12°C/54°F. Annual rainfall is heavy, averaging 1,500 mm/60 in.

Economy
In the early 19th century, New Orleans flourished as a trading and processing centre for cotton, tobacco, indigo, grain, salt-meat, and potash carried down the Ohio and Mississippi. The first steamboat to ferry between Pittsburgh and New Orleans was built in 1811 by Nicholas Roosevelt, an ancestor of the family which later provided two US presidents. By 1852 New Orleans was the third-largest city in the country, but restrictions on river traffic during and after the Civil War, the abolition of slavery, and the competition of the railways contributed to the decline of the port.

The modern city has benefited from the growth of trade between the USA and South America, and the development of the Gulf Coast as an oil-producing industrialized area. By 1970 it was handling over 60 million tonnes of cargo, and was America's second port after New York, in terms of the value of its foreign trade. River access to the Gulf required constant attention to maintain the shipping lanes, and in the 1960s a fresh channel was cut to the sea, north of the river. New Orleans is at the centre of the world's busiest port complex, along the lower Mississippi river. Silocaf, the world's largest green coffee handling plant was opened in 1993; steel, rubber, and plywood are also traded. The Napoleon Container Terminal was built in 2002.

The economic effects of Hurricane Katrina, which flooded 75% of the city in 2005, were far-reaching. Repopulation and regeneration of business and infrastructure were slow but steady.

Architecture
Canal Street, the centre of the retail trade, separates the French or Latin Quarter of New Orleans from the American quarter or New City, also known as the Central Business District and Garden District. In 1788 and 1794, two great fires destroyed most of the original French settlement. The few surviving structures include the Old Ursuline Convent (designed 1754, built 1749–53), Merieult House (1792), Madame John's Legacy (1788), and Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop (1772). Most of the remaining late 18th-century architecture displays a Spanish colonial style, such as the St Louis Cemetery No. 1 (1789), a city of the dead; the St Louis Cathedral (1794), oldest cathedral in the USA; and the First Skyscraper (1795–1811), originally three storeys high. Other 18th-century buildings include the Banque de la Louisiane (1795), Maspero's Exchange (1794), Bartholomé Bosque House (1795), Le Petit Théâtre du Vieux Carré (1789, damaged by fire in 1794, completed in 1796), Pedesclaux-Lemonnier House (1745–1811), Montegut House (1795), Cabildo (1795–1799). 19th-century architecture includes Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic church (1827); the Hermann-Grima House (1831); La Branche House, built around 1840; Beauregard-Keyes House, home of the novelist Frances Parkinson Keyes; and Longue Vue House and Gardens. The granite-built and marble-halled Custom House, completed in the 1880s, is one of the largest in the USA. The Mississippi River Terminal Complex was completed in 1996, the world's largest continuous river front quay.

Culture
The Gallier House houses a museum of Creole history from around 1857, and the Historic New Orleans Collection includes the Merieult house, with archives relating to the history of the city. The Voodoo Museum includes memorabilia of the voodoo queen Marie Laveau.

The New Orleans Museum of Art is located in City Park. The Louisiana State Museum comprises the Old US Mint, housing the Jazz and Mardi Gras exhibits, and A Streetcar Named Desire (from the old Desire line, the inspiration for the Tennesee Williams play); the Cabildo, seat of the Spanish government; the Presbytère; and the 1850s House, with displays of mid-Victorian furniture. Audubon Park, originally part of a plantation, includes swamp exhibits. The city is also the seat of Tulane (1884 on an 1834 foundation), Dillard (1869), Xavier (1915) universities, as well as the University of New Orleans (1956).

Entertainment
The French Quarter has many French Creole restaurants and jazz clubs. The Municipal Auditorium, in Louis Armstrong Park, is on the site of Congo Square; and the principal venue for traditional jazz is Preservation Hall. Mardi Gras, a two-week festival leading up to Shrove Tuesday, the beginning of Lent, is celebrated with elaborate night pageants and balls. The Superdome sports palace is one of the largest enclosed stadiums in the world; 27 storeys high, it is adaptable to numerous games and variable audience capacity. The centre hosts the annual Sugar Bowl Football Classic on New Year's Day.

Famous people
The jazz singer and trumpet player, Louis Armstrong; the dramatist Lillian Hellman; and the novelist and playwright Truman Capote were born in the city.