New Orleans was founded in 1718 by Jean Baptiste La Moyne, Sieur de Bienville. At first, it was nothing more than a trading camp on a curve in the east bank of the Mississippi River. Later, the city was organized into a rectangular, fortified community, which still exists today as the French Quarter. The resulting streets were named for French royalty and nobility.
As the community grew to the west, north, and east, it followed the curve in the river, and became known as "the Crescent City," because of its shape. Because the city was surrounded by swamps and marshes (with a sea level of approximately six feet at its highest point), the spring rise in the Mississippi River level, and tidal surges from hurricanes resulted in the building of levees around the city and the river. This also explains the ground level "basements" for most of the old structures in the New Orleans area.
Even to this day, the city's massive pumps and canals drain the city (annual rain fall can be between 60" and 100"). The total miles of canals (above and below ground) in New Orleans exceed that of Venice in Italy.
The lagoons in City Park, along City Park Blvd., are all that remains of what was once Bayou Metairie. Other bayous remain, including Bayou St. John, Bayou Sauvage, and Bayou Bienvenue in Chalmette.
Although established as the capitol of the French colony of Louisiana, it was actually twice the capital of Louisiana. The capital was moved from New Orleans to Donaldsonville in 1825, to Baton Rouge in 1846, to New Orleans in 1864 (during Reconstruction) and once again to Baton Rouge in 1879. Politics is timeless.
Canal Street, once the widest street in the world, was named for a canal that was planed for, but never built, in the median. For decades, the only use for the median was public transportation, mostly by the Canal St. Streetcars.
The first New Orleans "Skyscraper" was built in 1807. It was the first four-story building in the city, and is still standing and in use, on the corner of Royal St. and St. Peter St, in the French Quarter. New Orleans also had the first Opera House in America.
The great chess master Paul Morphy was born in the house at 1113 Chartres St. in the French Quarter. Today, the house is a museum, and goes by the name the Beauregard House, for the Confederate General. P. G. T. Beauregard, who also lived there.
