Carondelet Canal

The Carondelet Canal, also known as the Old Basin Canal, was a canal in New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A., operating from 1794 into the 1920s – or nearly 135 years. It ceased to be navigable in 1927 and was filled in 1938.

Construction of the canal began in June 1794, on the orders of Governor of Louisiana, Baron Carondelet, for whom the canal was named. The 1.6 mile-long canal started at Bayou St. John, which connected with Lake Pontchartrain, and went inland to what was then the back edge of New Orleans, behind the French Quarter in the Tremé 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. It served dual purposes of storm water drainage and facilitating 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 for shipping.

The 80,000-square-foot (7,400 m²) turning basin at the head of the Canal inspired the naming of Basin Street in New Orleans. Plans to build a connecting canal from the turning basin to the Mississippi River were never realized, in part because of the engineering challenges. Canal locks would have been needed due to the water level differences between the River and the Lake. Plans for that never-built canal influenced the name of Canal Street in the city. (The dream of a Lake-to-River canal was finally realized a century later with the construction of the Industrial Canal).

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