The New Basin Canal finally bites the dust in 1951
Submitted by Larie Tedesco August 2004
Source:  Times Picayune August 3, 1986

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The New Basin Canal finally bites the dust in 1951  
 
The filling in of the New Basin Canal from South Rampart to just beyond Claiborne Avenue was
near completion when this photograph was taken in 1938.
    The waterway for many years was the scene of picturesque schooners that brought
watermelons, lumber, oysters and other products to the heart of the city.   The canal was
not wholly doomed...yet.   A six-mile stretch from Claiborne to Lake Pontchartrain would
continue to function until the late 1940's.   It was filled in during 1949-1951.
    The closing of the waterway was decreed by a constitutional amendment passed by the
Louisiana Legislature in 1936 in the name of progress.   Opponents of the canal called it a
fire hazard, a delay to traffic and an unnecessary cost now that it had outlived its
usefullness.   Proponents said the canal, with its few bridges, offered no more danger than
railroad crossings.   They also pointed out its charm to motorists, who drove out the shell
road and admired yachts and other vessels in its waters.
    Though the canal was more than a century old, it had always been the New Basin Canal.
The Old Basin Canal was dug in 1796, then Baron Carondelet ruled Louisiana, and was also
know as Carondelet Canal.   It ran from what is now Armstrong Park by Municipal Auditorium
out to Bayou St. John, establishing a waterway from Lake Pontchartrain to the heart of the
old-time city.   It eventually was filled in, too.
    The New Basin Canal was begun in 1831, but not beleived completely navigable until 1848.
Dug during the time of the great Irish immigration to New Orlean, more that 20,000 men hired
for the project are believed to have died of the cholera, which broke out amoung them.   The
canal, where thousands of area youngsters learned how to swim, is but a memory.
    What occupies the site today?   I-10 and West End Boulevard.

John Burke

Photo from the Files of the Times Picayune/The States Item
Picture From the Past
Sunday August 3, 1986
The Times Picayune
Page F-10