Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Spring 2008 - (Page 18) New Orleans, the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain [ on view through August 10 ] Along its considerable length, the Mississippi River presents many appearances. Its headwaters, in the glacial lakes of Minnesota, produce a modest stream that gradually widens as it travels south. Tumbling over St. Anthony’s Falls at Minneapolis, then passing the bluffs of Iowa, the river gathers volume and width, pressing toward its confluence with the Missouri (at St. Louis) and, further downstream, the Ohio (at Cairo, Illinois). When the flow reaches the flatlands of Louisiana, its broad, sheetlike surface belies In 1885, the popular and prolific New York printing firm of Currier and Ives produced this bird’s-eye view of New Orleans, titled The City of New Orleans, and the Mississippi River, Lake Pontchartrain in the Distance, to commemorate the World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition of 1884–85. The Upper City Park — now Audubon Park — was the site of the world’s fair, and is shown at the bottom left. The artists took liberties with their depiction, eliminating approximately three miles of Uptown New Orleans in order to make the city “fit” into the image. a swift and treacherous current, racing toward discharge into the Gulf of Mexico through a weblike array of channels. Despite engineers’ best efforts to smooth the transitions along its length, the Mississippi remains many rivers in one. The city of New Orleans owes its existence — and its economic viability — to the same geographic features that perpetuate its vulnerability. For centuries, the Mississippi has acted as the primary conduit for the consumer goods, natural resources, and agricultural 18 LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES\Spring 2008 http://www.hnoc.org
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.