New Orleans

Read its story

• A city the river does not want thereWhy New Orleans is where it is, and why keeping it there gets harder.4 chapters · about 10 min · 3 sources

Where it is

New Orleans sits on the lower Mississippi about 160 kilometres from the Gulf, on a crescent of the river, with Lake Pontchartrain to the north. Much of the city is at or below sea level and stays dry by pumping — a system of drainage canals and pumps running continuously. The ground is deltaic sediment that compacts as it is drained, so the act of keeping the city dry is also what makes it lower.

The land and water around it

• The Mississippiriver

  The drain of most of the North American interior, and the reason the city was placed here. Levees now confine it, sending sediment down the channel instead of across the marsh.

• Lake Pontchartrainlake

  A large brackish estuary north of the city, reached from the river by a short portage. That shortcut is the whole reason for the address.

• The coastal wetlandsdelta

  Marsh south and east of the city that absorbs storm surge. It is disappearing, because levees stopped the floods that used to rebuild it while compaction and sea-level rise continue.

Its history, in short

France founded the city in 1718 at a short portage between the river and the lake, a route already in use by Indigenous peoples of the region. It passed to Spain, back to France, and to the United States in 1803. It became one of the busiest ports in the Americas, and inseparably one of the largest markets in the domestic trade in enslaved people. Its population layered French, Spanish, African, Haitian, Irish, German, Italian and later Vietnamese arrivals, producing a distinct legal tradition, two French-related languages, and the musical lineage that became jazz. The engineering that protects it — levees along the river, pumps beneath the city — has also removed the sediment supply that built the coast, and the coast is going.

Timeline

Dates are shown on a timeline rather than as changing shapes on the map. The globe draws modern boundaries only, and tinting a modern outline to stand for a historical one would state something we cannot source.

Places that carry meaning

• Congo Square18th–19th centuries

  A place in what is now Louis Armstrong Park where enslaved and free Black people gathered on Sundays to trade, dance and drum. The continuity of African musical practice there is a documented part of the lineage that runs to jazz.

• The Vieux Carré18th century onward

  The original grid, mostly rebuilt after fires in 1788 and 1794 — which is why its architecture is substantially Spanish-period rather than French, despite the name everyone uses.

• The Lower Ninth Ward20th century onward

  A predominantly Black neighbourhood severely flooded in 2005 when the Industrial Canal floodwall failed. Its population remains far below the pre-2005 level.

Learn the language here

1. 1Understand which languages are spoken hereNew Orleans is multilingual. Start with which languages are used, by whom, and for what — the phrase list only covers one of them.Written by Globe Quest
2. 2Learn 14 phrasesCurated everyday phrases for New Orleans, with audio and a written form.Written by Globe Quest
3. 3Say them out loudSpeaking practice with pronunciation feedback, one phrase at a time.Globe Quest material, your own additions
4. 4Come back to themSpaced review, so what you learned this week is still there next month.Written by Globe Quest
5. 5Practise with people: Vietnamese practice · Ho Chi Minh CityAn in-person practice circle. It is a prepared plan and needs a host before it runs.Run by members
6. 6Read why the language is what it isThe quest for this place covers how its languages got here and who speaks them.Written by Globe Quest

Check yourself

• Why was the city founded on this particular ground?

  A short portage linked the river to Lake Pontchartrain and the Gulf

  Chosen for connection despite the ground, not because of it.

• Why does draining the city make it lower?

  Deltaic sediment compacts as it dries out

  Drainage lets the sediment consolidate, so the surface subsides — and then needs more pumping.

Worth arguing about

• The levees protect the city and dissolve the coast that protects it from surge. Over what horizon should that be judged?
• After 2005 some neighbourhoods returned and others did not. What decides that, and who makes it?

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