Nautical New Orleans

Boats are docked on the banks of the Carondelet Canal shortly before it was abandoned as a navigable waterway in 1927. Also called the Old Basin Canal, its construction was ordered in 1794 by Gov. Francisco Luis Hector, Baron de Carondelet, who oversaw the Spanish colonies of Louisiana and West Florida from 1791-1797. The 1.6-mile 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. (Photo from the Thelma Hecht Coleman Memorial Collection in the Southeastern Architectural Archive)