Ponchatoula, The Gateway to New Orleans, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana Submitted to the USGenWeb Archives by Sandra McLellan, Jan. 2007 Special thanks to Jim Perrin for donating it to the archives. ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ PONCHATOULA, THE GATEWAY TO NEW ORLEANS BY JIM PERRIN, Local Historian PART ONE The vast cypress swamp lying south of Ponchatoula was a barrier which for generations made land transportation between New Orleans and this area impossible. That changed in 1854 with the construction of the New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern Railroad line through the swamps. Thereafter people and goods could be easily transported from "the city" to the nearby county areas such as Ponchatoula. The railroad had been built on beams supported by cross members, with pilings driven into the mucky swamp soil. Over the years following the construction of the railroad track through the swamp the railroad company deposited rocks and other fill material through the openings under the tracks and filled up the roadbed. There was no roadway from Ponchatoula to Manchac and further south suitable for wagons and later automobiles. The dream and desire to somehow have a road through the swamp lingered over the decades. The development of steam-shovels mounted on barges which could dig a canal and scoop up the swamp soil and deposit it on the side to make a roadway made the construction of a highway through the swamp feasible. Besides the engineering problems of such an operation, the costs of doing this work and bridging Pass Manchac, North Pass, and the other streams along the way made the project beyond the scope of parish governments. As the numbers of automobiles in southern Louisiana greatly increased after 1910 more consideration began to be given to the possibility of the state highway department building a roadway through the swamp. In November 1916, the Tangipahoa Parish Police Jury asked the state highway department to construct a highway from Pass Manchac to the "highlands" at Ponchatoula and then on to Hammond. No action was taken by the state at that time. Within days of the United States entry into World War I in April 1917, the parish police jury sought on April 10, 1917, to obtain federal assistance to construct the road. Writing to the U. S. War Department the police jury stressed that if a road or highway was constructed, it could be used to transport troops and supplies in case the enemy destroyed the existing railroad bridges leading north from New Orleans. The federal government did not rush money to Louisiana to build the swamp road, but enough interest was generated by that time for the state highway department to consider survey work for the road. Each parish through which the proposed road would run was asked to allot money to pay for the survey, and Tangipahoa Parish paid $280 in June 1917, as their share of the survey cost. The parish police jury again asked the state for help in building that portion of the road from Ponchatoula to Manchac in February 1918. Nothing was done by the state and the project languished for a few years. As prosperity returned to Louisiana and the United States following the economic downturn after World War I, more interest in the proposed highway was generated from the state. During the summer of 1922, James M. Fourmy, the chief engineer of the state highway commission in New Orleans supervised a feasibility study on a proposed scenic route around Lake Pontchartrain. Soil borings were made along a sixteen mile section of the proposed road from West End in New Orleans to the area near LaBranche. With the support of Louisiana Governor John Parker, and with state and federal funding construction of the link between Frenier and Ponchatoula in the so-called New Orleans-Hammond Highway was approved in the spring of 1923. After the roadway had been surveyed and trees removed, barge-mounted dredges began clawing out a canal and placing the spoil alongside the canal to form a roadway. During the summer of 1923 the huge dredges continued to dig the canal from Manchac toward Ponchatoula. Other dredges were digging from Galva on the south shore of Pass Manchac toward Frenier. The mud and muck from the swamp placed by the dredges along the canal to form the roadway was allowed to dry in the summer sun and then work crew began the difficult and time consuming task of forming the mud into something that could be used as a road bed. The excavation work continued over the next year, but was delayed for about two months in 1924 because of mechanical problems on the dredge working on the Manchac to Ponchatoula cut. Another major delay was the construction of the bridge across Pass Manchac. The bridge was said to then be the longest in the state with specifications calling for 950 feet of creosoted trestle work on the north side of the drawbridge and 1,673 feet of trestle work on the southern approach to the draw. The drawbridge itself would be a 161 foot steel span pivoting on a concrete center pier. Bids for the construction of the bridge were received in November 1924. The dredging work speeded up a bit when the dredge left the forested swamp and entered the marsh below Ponchatoula. As the canal neared Ponchatoula at the end of 1924, Ponchatoula businessmen and the parish police jury asked the state highway department to widen the end of the canal and create a turning basin for small boats which in time could bring waterborne commerce to Ponchatoula's backdoor. The turning basin and docking site at the head of the canal were not constructed. Throughout 1925, work on the road to Manchac continued. Construction crews worked on the compacted soil from the canal excavation as time and weather permitted. A heavy layer of clay was added to the top of the spoil material and graded to form a road bed. The work was frustrating as the roadbed would often sink because of the weight of the layer of clay and the machines working the road. Occasionally the entire side of a section of the road, sometimes as much as 1,000 feet in length, would slide away causing delays as additional fill and clay had to brought in to repair the area. Frequent rains made the clay surface unable to be worked until it had dried sufficiently. The contractors struggled on however and the work had progressed enough by the winter of 1925-1926 for layers of gravel and shells to be applied to the clay road surface. Vast amounts of these surfacing materials were needed as a thick layer had to be produced after the initial layers were worked into the roadbed. While the road work continued in 1925 the construction of the Manchac bridge was under way. Pilings for the approach trestles were driven into the pass in the fall of 1925 and work on the trestle work followed. Completion of the bridge lagged for months because of a delay in procuring the steel beams for the drawbridge. As the months on the 1926 calendar fell away, area residents waited impatiently for the completion of the road that would finally make Ponchatoula, the Gateway to New Orleans. Next: The Gateway Completed PART TWO A highway through the swamp connecting Ponchatoula and New Orleans, which had been a dream for generations, was becoming a reality in the fall of 1926 as work progressed on what would later be called Federal Highway 51. The construction of the roadway had been frustratingly slow because of the nature of the material used to build up the road and by the delays in completing the drawbridge over Pass Manchac. The process of dumping and grading the gravel and shells to form the roadbed was quickening by the late summer of 1926. Crews operating from Ponchatoula were working south and other crews operating from the supply dump at Strader were working north. By the early months of 1926 cars were able to travel over the unfinished road from Ponchatoula to Manchac, which was quite an adventure for area motorists. By the end of October cars began to carefully navigate their way from St. James Parish across the completed Manchac Bridge and into Ponchatoula. Several hundred Sunday drivers from the river parishes came to Manchac during the last Sunday in October as word spread that the road was open for traffic. The residents of the little fishing village of Manchac (Akers) were amazed at the volume of traffic passing trough their quiet community. The road was being used but was not yet completed. There were a number of "soft spots" or sinks in the roadbed that had to be repeatedly filled in with additional gravel. Repairing such trouble area and doing other finishing work took place in the spring of 1927. After several delays the highway was officially opened April 1, 1927 when a twelve car motorcade including Hammond and Ponchatoula public officials left Ponchatoula for the journey to New Orleans. The cars traveled at about 35 miles per hour between Ponchatoula and Manchac, and after a forty minute stop in Manchac the caravan arrived at Frenier at 8:20 in the morning. After brief stops in Frenier and LaPlace, the dozen cars arrived at the New Orleans city hall and presented Mayor O'Keefe with a crate of fresh Ponchatoula strawberries. After a few remarks by Ponchatoula Mayor Haight, Hammond's Mayor Carter, and New Orleans Mayor O'Keefe a reception was held in the mayor suite in city hall. The Tangipahoa Parish delegation drove back to this area after lunch thus ending their historic motor trip. Within days hundreds of motorists from the New Orleans area were taking excursions to Ponchatoula and what would later be called "The Northshore." The highway department counted 1,134 cars crossing the Manchac Bridge on Sunday April 10. An anti-climatic official dedication of the highway took place in May 1927, and was pushed from major publicity by the national disaster occurring with the massive Mississippi River flooding. To welcome the many visitors from New Orleans it was decided to build a "Welcome Arch" spanning the highway south of town. The large arch was funded by the Businessmen's Association of Ponchatoula and constructed by a Mr. Brackney. The arch stood for many years as welcome sign for motorist entering Ponchatoula. Several business in Ponchatoula took advantage of the publicity concerning the opening of the road making Ponchatoula "The Gateway to New Orleans," to take the word Gateway part of their business name. The Gateway Pressing Club (cleaners); Gateway Chevrolet, a local automotive dealership; and some years later the Gateway Hotel, a successor to the Ponchatoula Hotel located on the second floor of the Edwards Building on East Pine Street; as well as Gateway Ford on North Sixth Street. As the road was completed to Ponchatoula there was considerable debate on the route the highway should take through Ponchatoula and on to Hammond. Many engineers favored bringing the highway up South Sixth Street and then on north paralleling the railroad line into Hammond. This was viewed as being the shortest and most economical route. Others stated that it might be difficult to obtain the needed right-of-way from the many small land holders through which this route would run. In the end, the highway ran up Southwest Railroad Avenue in Ponchatoula next to the railroad tract, made a ninety degree turn west and ran west until leaving the city limits and turning north to Hammond. After reaching Hammond near the railroad tracks the highway would again turn west and run away from the railroad tracks until reaching the present intersection of West Thomas Street and Morrison Avenue. This very indirect routing of the highway may reflect an economic desire to have the highway run through certain business districts rather than the difficulty in obtaining the necessary right-of-way. The highway from Ponchatoula to New Orleans was heavily used over the following years, and was later was overlaid with asphalt. The highway had a number of problems over the years caused by the uneven settling of the roadway. This uneven settling of the mud base of the highway caused the road's surface to have many ridges or bumps which created an uncomfortable ride for motorists. In spite of the highway department's repeated repair efforts, nothing short of building a completely new road would solve the problem. Starting in the late 1950's a new Highway 51 was constructed just west of the 1927 road. Massive amounts of clay fill were hauled in and dumped to form a more solid roadbed. The road construction project took some time and the soil was compacted with the use of much improved road grading and rolling machines. When opened the new Highway 51 was a great improvement over the 1927 road and is still in use today. Using massive amount of Federal funds generated largely from gasoline taxes, the engineers working with the interstate highway system began planning another route connecting New Orleans with the Northshore and points further north. After considerable debate including some with concerned local residents, the decision was made to build the highway through the swamp as an elevated roadway. The present Interstate 55 was built just west of and parallel to the two previous roads providing the main overland route from Ponchatoula to New Orleans. Interstate 55 is the latest version of "The Gateway to New Orleans," and is bring economic prosperity and rapid change to Ponchatoula just as the original highway did in 1927. Anyone with questions, comments, or suggestions for future articles, may contact Jim Perrin at 386-4476.