Orleans Canal

The current version of the canal is about 2 km long, running along the up-river side of City Park, through the Lakeview and Lakeshore neighborhood, and into Lake Pontchartrain.

It was a drainage ditch dug alongside of Orleans Avenue in the 1830s, running from the Tremé neighborhood into Bayou St. John.

The Canal Street, City Park, and Lake Railroad Company was formed in 1873, and the line was complete and running by 1877.

Much of its route ran alongside the straight line of the canal, which was dug deeper, providing fill for the railway right-of-way through the low swampy area running from Metairie Ridge to the lake.

The early 20th century a greatly improved drainage pumping system designed by A. Baldwin Wood was installed.

The unintended ‘spillway’ was located in an area where eventual floodwall (I-wall) construction would require coordinated efforts between the OLB, the S&WB, the DOTD and, possibly, the Federal Highway Administration.

This had not been resolved at the time of Hurricane Katrina’s arrival, so floodwaters simply poured through the open gap, which served to partially relieve water levels within the canal.

The Army Corps of Engineers decided that, to meet that requirement, new pumping stations and permanent closures would be built on all three of the New Orleans Outfall canals.