Torras is the name of a former town in the extreme northeastern corner of

Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana Pointe Coupee Parish ( or ; french: Paroisse de la Pointe-Coupée) is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2010 census, the population was 22,802; in 2020, its population was 20,758. The parish seat is New Roads. Pointe ...

, United States. The town was located along either side of the Texas & Pacific Railroad at its juncture with Lower Old River. 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 f ...

is located just to the east and the juncture of the

Red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

and Atchafalaya Rivers just to the west. The community was founded in 1902 and named after pioneer area planter Joseph Torras. Joseph Torras was born in

Barcelona, Spain Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

in 1820 and was the great-uncle of Fernando Joseph Torras who was famous for building bridges around the world, most notably the

F.J. Torras Causeway F.J. Torras Causeway is a causeway located in Glynn County, Georgia, USA that connects the city of Brunswick, Georgia to St. Simons Island, Georgia. Route description F.J. Torras Causeway is a four-lane paved road, with a concrete barrier in ...

in Brunswick, GA. He immigrated to the United States as a young man. Before settling in Pointe Coupee in 1845, he had lived in

Natchez, Mississippi Natchez ( ) is the county seat of and only city in Adams County, Mississippi, United States. Natchez has a total population of 14,520 (as of the 2020 census). Located on the Mississippi River across from Vidalia in Concordia Parish, Louisiana, N ...

and

Van Buren, Arkansas Van Buren ( ) is the second-largest city in the Fort Smith, Arkansas–Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area and the county seat of Crawford County, Arkansas, United States. The city is located directly northeast of Fort Smith at the Interstat ...

. He and his brother purchased the plantation of Bennet Barton Simmes and opened the firm of M & J Torras. The town of Torras was expected to develop into an important shipping and rail center, due to its excellent location. Disaster struck, however, on May 1, 1912, when the levee in front of the town gave way during the great Mississippi River flood of that year. The community was virtually destroyed as the flood waters poured south through Pointe Coupee Parish as well as into West Baton Rouge, Iberville and Assumption Parishes. Some 17,000 residents of Pointe Coupee were forced from their homes and at least 28 persons drowned, principally in the Lettsworth, Batchelor and Erwinwille communities to the south of Torras. The community of Torras was moderately rebuilt and withstood the high water of the Great Flood of 1927, when a levee break occurred nearby at the McCrea community on the east bank of the Atchafalaya River. With the relocation of the railroad in later years, however, the community of Torras ceased to exist and there are no buildings left to mark its former location.Lockhart, John M. "Roadmap to the Westside",
The Riverside Reader
', January 21, 2008, p. 10

References

{{Authority control Geography of Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana Baton Rouge metropolitan area Ghost towns in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana