Lance Hill
The
Carondelet Canal, also known as the
Old Basin Canal, was a
canal in
New Orleans, Louisiana from
1794 through
1938.
Construction of the canal began in June of 1794 on the orders of
Governor of Louisiana Francisco Luis Hector de Carondelet, for whom the canal was named. The 1.6‑
mile long canal started at
Bayou St. John, which in turn connected with
Lake Pontchartrain, and went inland to what was then the back edge of New Orleans, just in back of the
French Quarter in the
Treme neighborhood. The first shallow, narrow version of the canal was completed by the end of 1794. Over the next two years further work made the canal wider and deeper. The canal served dual purposes of
drainage and
shipping.
After the
United States purchase of Louisiana,
James Pitot worked to promote improvements of the canal. Starting in
1805 the
Orleans Navigation Company improved the Canal and the Bayou, making it more important in shipping.
The 80,000 square foot turning basin at the head of the Canal was the inspiration for the naming of "
Basin Street" in New Orleans.
|
This drainage canal, still in use in the early 21st century, in back of a Broad Street pumping station near St. Louis Street, is a partial surviving remenent of the old Carondelet Canal |
Plans to build a connecting canal from the turning basin to the
Mississippi River were never realized, in part because of the engineering challenges of the needed
canal locks due to the level differences between the River and the Lake, but the plans for that never built canal gave its name to
Canal Street, New Orleans. (The dream of a Lake to River canal was finally realized over a century later with the construction of the
Industrial Canal).
By the early
1820s, it was reported that some 70 to 80 vessels could be found in the Canal on most given days.
In the early 19th century, the
Francophone Creole section of the city was in competition with the
Anglophone Uptown section; businessment of the latter section constructed the competing
New Basin Canal in the 1830s. By the time of the
American Civil War the New Basin Canal was doing more than twice the business of the Carondolet, by then often referred to as the "Old Basin Canal". Larger ships too big to use the canal became more common in the late 19th century, but the Canal was still economically important in to the early decades of the 20th century, towards the end most importantly in the
oyster boat business.
Early monarchs of the
Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club Mardi Gras krewe made their entrance on the Old Basin Canal.
After
World War I use of the Canal declined further. In
1927 it was declared to no longer be a navigable waterway, and the shipping canal was filled in
1938. Portions of the old Carondolet Canal infastructure remain, however, as some of the oldest parts of the city's storm water drainage system.
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Drainage in New Orleans
