The Carondelet Canal, also known as the Old Basin Canal, was a

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface fl ...

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a U.S. state, state in the Deep South and South Central United States, South Central regions of the United States. It is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 20th-smal ...

, U.S.A., operating from 1794 into the 1920s – nearly 135 years. OldBasinOysterLuggers2

Construction of the canal began in June 1794, on the orders of the Spanish Governor of Louisiana,

Francisco Luis Héctor de Carondelet Francisco Luis Héctor de Carondelet y Bosoist, 5th Baron of Carondelet, (born 1748, Noyelles-sur-Selle, County of Flanders, Flanders – died 1807 Quito, Ecuador) was a Spanish administrator of partial Burgundy, Burgundian descent in the employ ...

, for whom the canal was named. Construction was accomplished by the forced labor of convicts and by slaves whose work was donated by townspeople. The 1.6 mile-long canal started at Bayou St. John, which connected with

Lake Pontchartrain Lake Pontchartrain ( ) is an estuary located in southeastern Louisiana in the United States. It covers an area of with an average depth of . Some shipping channels are kept deeper through dredging. It is roughly oval in shape, about from wes ...

, and went inland to what was then the back edge of New Orleans, behind the

French Quarter The French Quarter, also known as the , is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. After New Orleans (french: La Nouvelle-Orléans) was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city developed around the ("Old S ...

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. The canal officially opened in 1796, serving dual purposes of

drainage Drainage is the natural or artificial removal of a surface's water and sub-surface water from an area with excess of water. The internal drainage of most agricultural soils is good enough to prevent severe waterlogging (anaerobic conditio ...

and

shipping Freight transport, also referred as ''Freight Forwarding'', is the physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it has been ex ...

, but when Carondelet was transferred away from Louisiana the next year, the canal fell into neglect. After the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

' 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

turning basin A turning basin, winding basin or swinging basin is a wider body of water, either located at the end of a ship canal or in a port to allow cargo ships to turn and reverse their direction of travel, or to enable long narrow barges in a canal to tu ...

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 The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it ...

were never realized, in part because of the engineering challenges.

Canal lock A lock is a device used for raising and lowering boats, ships and other watercraft between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways. The distinguishing feature of a lock is a fixed chamber in which the water lev ...

s 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). By the early 1820s, 70 to 80 vessels were reported using the Canal daily. In the early 19th century, the

Francophone French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the ...

Creole section of the city was in competition with the

Anglophone Speakers of English are also known as Anglophones, and the countries where English is natively spoken by the majority of the population are termed the '' Anglosphere''. Over two billion people speak English , making English the largest langua ...

uptown section; businessmen of the latter section constructed the competing

New Basin Canal The New Basin Canal, also known as the New Canal and the New Orleans Canal, was a shipping canal in New Orleans, Louisiana, operating from 1830s into the 1940s. History The New Basin Canal was constructed by the New Orleans Canal and Banking Comp ...

in the 1830s. By the time of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by state ...

, the New Basin Canal was doing more than twice the business of the Carondelet, 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 Carondelet Canal was still economically important into the early decades of the 20th century. During this period it was important for the

oyster Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but not a ...

boat business. Early monarchs of the Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club

Mardi Gras Mardi Gras (, ) refers to events of the Carnival celebration, beginning on or after the Christian feasts of the Epiphany (Three Kings Day) and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday, which is known as Shrove Tuesday. is French for "F ...

krewe A krewe (pronounced "crew") is a social organization that puts on a parade or ball for the Carnival season. The term is best known for its association with Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans, but is also used in other Carnival celebrations a ...

made their entrance on the waters of the Old Basin Canal. After

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, use of the Canal declined further. The City of New Orleans purchased the canal in 1924 and began the process of filling it the next year. Today the entire length of the former canal is part of the Lafitte Greenway.

References

{{Coord missing, New Orleans Canals in New Orleans History of New Orleans Canals opened in 1794 1794 establishments in New Spain

See also

References