A city the river does not want there

Start with geography

The shortest way between two waters

The Mississippi's lower course loops enormously. The site chosen for New Orleans in 1718 sits on a crescent of the river at a point where a short overland portage — a route Indigenous peoples of the region already used — reaches Lake Pontchartrain and, through it, the Gulf.

That shortcut is the whole reason for the address. The land itself is terrible for a city: soft delta sediment, close to sea level, hurricane-exposed and flood-prone. The site was chosen for connection, not for ground.

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