n in New Orleans, in the dredging of a canal
through buried forests 18,000 years old, the creation of an underground
river, and the building of a lock that was thought impossible.

The Industrial Canal
and Inner Harbor of New Orleans

History, Description and Economic Aspects of Giant
Facility Created to Encourage Industrial
Expansion and Develop Commerce

By Thomas Ewing Dabney

Published by
Board of Commissioners of the Port of New Orleans
Second Port U. S. A.
May, 1921

(Copyright, 1921, by Thomas Ewing Dabney).

CONTENTS

FOREWORD 2

THE NEED RECOGNIZED FOR A CENTURY 5

NEW ORLEANS DECIDES TO BUILD CANAL 8

SMALL CANAL FIRST PLANNED 13

THE DIRT BEGINS TO FLY 17

CANAL PLANS EXPANDED 22

DIGGING THE DITCH 27

OVERWHELMING ENDORSEMENT BY NEW ORLEANS 31

SIPHON AND BRIDGES 36

THE REMARKABLE LOCK 40

NEW CHANNEL TO THE GULF 48

WHY GOVERNMENT SHOULD OPERATE CANAL 54

ECONOMIC ASPECT OF CANAL 60

CONSTRUCTION COSTS AND CONTRACTORS 66

OTHER PORT FACILITIES 70

COMPARISON OF DISTANCES BETWEEN NEW ORLEANS AND THE
PRINCIPAL CITIES AND PORTS OF THE WORLD 78

THE NEED RECOGNIZED FOR A CENTURY.

There is a map in the possession of T. P. Thompson of New Orleans, who
has a notable collection of books and documents on the early history of
this city, dated March 1, 1827, and drawn by Captain W. T. Poussin,
topographical engineer, showing the route of a proposed canal to
connect the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, curiously near
the site finally chosen for that great enterprise nearly a hundred
years later.

New Orleans then was a mere huddle of buildings around Jackson Square;
but with the purchase of the Louisiana territory from France, and the
great influx of American enterprise that characterized the first
quarter of the last century, development was working like yeast, and it
was foreseen that New Orleans' futu