Yesterday was wet even by Louisiana standards. New Orleans received 2.49 inches of rain on Tuesday and more was called for today. I got up and it wasn't raining so after chai and the CBS morning news, I decided to chance it and go for a walk at Audubon Park. I decided to drive just in case, no sense walking a mile and half back in the rain, but by the time I got in the car my itinerary
had changed.
I decided to take a road trip to the southernmost point in Louisiana, Venice.
A nice four lane highway ran the majority of the way from the south shore of New Orleans suburb of Gretna down the Mississippi River corridor to Venice. Even though it was pretty foggy due to the differences between the river and air temperatures, at least it wasn't raining.
It's really flat and barely above sea level in this part of Louisiana mainly because the bottom land is part of an alluvial (I've waited years to use that term) plain that the Mississippi River has deposited over the centuries. Before levees and dredging when the river ran freely, most of the silt was intially deposited upstream forming the delta and as the river changed course whenever a build up occurred it spread the low lying areas over a ever widening plain.
Venice was almost totally destroyed by Katrina and it's population has dropped to around 200 people.
At the end of the highway I headed right towards the Venice Harbor, to the left was the Coast Guard dock and at the end I found this sign that verified that I had indeed arrived at my destination.
From here on out it's water and islands only accessible by boat. With the fog the bayou took on a totally different character, it was almost ghostly with varying shades of gray.
Lots of waterfowl in the area. I was egrets, storks, ducks, pelicans and what I thought were loons.
Another shot of the bayou.
On the way back I stopped at Fort Jackson National Monument.
Established in 1792 by the French as Fort Bourbon, the US began work on Fort Jackson in 1822 at the advice of Andrew Jackson who saw the need to protect New Orleans and the river at its source after his defeating of the British in 1815. It took 10 years to finish. It's made out of brick, the walls 25 feet high over the moat.
The fort saw service in the Civil War and was the scene of a 12 day siege and bombardment from the Union fleet and held out until some of the men mutinied after the fall of New Orleans.
As with most coastal forts and communities, the fill dirt is littered with shells.
This photo shows the iron rings that the cannon crew used to move the cannons when they needed to be repositioned. Each cannon had wheels that sat on the iron tracks that made it easier to move.
The fort was totally flooded by Katrina and Rita, which arrived a month later. It was under water for a prolonged period before restoration work began. It remained closed from 2005 until 2011.
One interesting sidelight that I found on Wikipedia " In the 1960s, Leander Perez (the sheriff) threatened to turn it into a prison for any hippies and advocates of desegregation who entered the Parish." Sweet.
Near the fort is a monument to Robert de la Salle, the French explorer who went by canoe from what is now Peoria, Illinois to the mouth of the Mississippi near Venice in 1682. Those were some studly dudes.
A good day on the road despite gray skies.
Les Roule les Bon Temps, y'all!!
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