Industrial Canal - History

History

The dream of a shipping canal connecting the Mississippi River to Lake Pontchartrain goes back to Spanish colonial times (1763–1803). The colonial era Carondelet Canal connected the back side of the French Quarter with the lake via Bayou St. John, but it was not extended to the river because of the differing levels of the river and the lake. Engineers confirmed that canal locks would be necessary.

A canal proposed in the early 19th century was never built, but the right-of-way for the proposed waterway gave its name to the city's Canal Street.

In July 1914 the Louisiana State Government authorized the Port of New Orleans to build a deep-water shipping canal between the river and lake. Considerable land was expropriated in the downriver portion of the city. Toward the lake this was mostly little-developed swamp. Along the riverfront, though, buildings demolished to make room for the canal included homes and the Ursuline Convent, whose Dauphine Street facility was nearly a century old at that time.

Dredging of the canal began on 6 June 1918. The length from the lake to the lock near the river was constructed with a 30 foot (9 m) depth, with a width of 300 feet (90 m) at the top of the canal and at least 150 feet (45 m) at the bottom. The original lock system had 5 gates, a width of 74 feet (23 m), and a depth of 50 feet (15 m), with a capability to function to up to 20 feet (6 m) in difference of levels between the river and lake. The opening dedication ceremony was presided over by Louisiana Governor John M. Parker on 5 May 1923. The cost was 19 million dollars.

The original length of the canal was 5.3 miles (8.5 km) with a 1,600 foot (500 m) right-of way. The longer current length of 5.5 miles (8.9 km) is due to the extension of the lakeshore by dredging in the late 1920s.

After the opening of the canal, slips and docks were added along its length, allowing it to function as a harbor and industrial zone in addition to serving as a transit canal. With the inauguration of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW) in the 1930s, the Industrial Canal served as a channel linking the Lake Pontchartrain segment of the GIWW to its continuing segment, accessed via the Mississippi River. During World War II the Intracoastal Waterway was rerouted, and a newly-excavated segment extending through the swamp west from the Rigolets joined the Industrial Canal at its approximate midway point between the river and the lake. In 1944, the federal government leased the Industrial Canal lock and the southern 2.1-mile (3.4-km) section of the canal and took over its operation and maintenance.

In the 1960s the Industrial Canal/Intracoastal Waterway junction was enlarged, in expectation of the anticipated surge in traffic resulting from the completion (1965) of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet. Largely due to the failure of the Port of New Orleans' Centroport U.S.A. initiative (which envisioned the wholesale relocation of the port from wharfs along the Mississippi River to new facilities along the Intracoastal Waterway), this surge in traffic failed to materialize.