New Canal, 1864
Opened in 1838, the New Canal offered an alternative waterway to New Orleans
Photograph of the turning basin for the “New Canal,” located at S. Rampart Street and Howard Avenue. Construction of the canal began in 1831. In spite of the original intent of city planners, there never was a canal built on Canal Street. Instead, the Creole community living in the Vieux Carre constructed a canal that followed the “Old Portage.” This was the foot path that led from the end of Bayou St. John to the city. This was more logical than digging a canal from the river to the lake. The Spanish Colonial government built what became known as the Carondelet Canal in 1795.
The Anglo-Irish Americans who lived on the uptown side of Canal Street, however, wanted their own access to Lake Pontchartrain. So, they began a project to dig a canal from S. Rampart Street out to what is now West End. By 1838, the canal was able to support small boats. Dredging of the canal continued into the mid-1840s, when it became commercially useful.
New/Old
The New Canal (as opposed to the “old” Carondelet Canal) was constructed primarily by Irish immigrants. While the claims that 10,000 workers died of yellow fever while building the canal are grossly exaggerated, the disease as well as accidents and such did cost the lives of many men.
This photo shows the turning basin in 1864. It’s part of the Marshall Dunham collection. Dunham worked for McPherson & Oliver, who were located at No. 132 Canal Street. New Orleans returned to regular commercial operations after the Union occupied the city in 1862. The Union navy lifted the naval blockade. By 1864, the port was an important staging base for the Union Army to move into the Western theater of operations in the Civil War. The photo shows the triangular shape of the turning basin.
The section of the Robinson Atlas of 1883 shows the turning basin’s location and shape.
With the completion of the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal (Industrial Canal) in the 1920s, the importance of the New Canal diminished. It was filled in after World War II, and is now the location of the Pontchartrain Expressway. Only a few blocks of the canal’s entrance at Lake Pontchartrain remain.