Biking River Road: New Orleans to Baton Rouge
"East Bank" - August 18th, 2007
by Taylor Lasseigne |
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| Bike prepared with distances, cyclocomputer (for mileage, MPH, time, and speed), and headlamp.
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| The river-side tip of Audubon Park in New Orleans is know by locals as "The Fly". I started my ride here at 5:40 AM. The next few photos were taken a few days before the ride, as it was too dark to photograph on ride day.
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There is a collection of landmarks at the foot of Williams Blvd. at the river. The most prominent monument commemorates the first world championship heavyweight prize fight held in the United States. The plaque reads:
In the predawn hours on May 10, 1870, a crowd of about 1,000 people left the New Orleans Jackson Street Railroad Station for Kennerville. There, in a makeshift ring, in the back of William Butler Kenner's old sugar house about 100 yards from the Mississippi River, Jed Mage of Beeston, Norwich, England beat Tom Allen of Birmingham, England in 10 rounds. The prize for the bare-knuckles event was $2,500, winner take all.
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Another marker, although not as prominent as the fighters, denotes La Salle's Landing in 1682. The marker reads:
In 1682, the French explorer, Robert Cavalier De La Salle landed in an Indian village later to be know as the city of Kenner. Proclaiming ownership in the name of Louis XIV, King of France, he erected a cypress cross to commemorate the historic event."
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| Approaching the grain elevators near Destrahan.
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This is the first photo actually taken on August 18th, 2008. Historical marker reads:
Destrahan Manor House. Constructed 1787-1790 for Robert de Longny. Inherited by Jean Noel d'Estrehan 1800. Bought from heirs of Pierre A. Roost in 1914 by Mexican Petroleum Co. Donated 1972 to River Road Historical Society by American Oil Co.
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| The Bonnet Carre Spillway When the Mississippi River crests and flooding occurs, the Bonnet Carre Spillway protects New Orleans and other areas further downstream by opening its gates and diverting some of the river's flow to Lake Pontchartrain.
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| I stumbled upon this airstrip within the flood zone of the spillway, but this isn't any ordinary airstrip. This well manicured lawn is meant to facilitate the take offs and landings of remote control planes. The spillway is also a hotbed for ATV activity, complete with designated sections for "cuttin' it up."
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Historical marker reads:
Graugnard House. Built at the turn of the century as a retirement home for Leon Graugnard, a French immigrant from Basses-Alpes, France. Graugnard, married to Eva Bacas, was a respected and accomplished businessman and was known as one of the most successful sugar planters in Louisiana. The house is the surviving structure of Terre Haute Plantation owned by Graugnard and his heirs. Emile Graugnard, Eva Graugnard Guidry, and Marie P. Graugnard.
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| This cistern behind the house shows how the Graugnards would have caught and stored drinking water.
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The San Francisco Plantation House is a National Historic Landmark in St. John the Baptist Parish, located about three miles west of Reserve, LA. I was unable to locate a marker with any information, but was able to dig up some statistics from a National Park Service website:
The opulent San Francisco Plantation House is a galleried house in the Creole manner that has been pictured in American, British, and Swedish periodicals as one of the major sites of the New Orleans area. Constructed between 1849-50, the San Francisco Plantation House is one of the most ornate of Louisiana's plantation houses. San Francisco, with its potpourri of architectural designs, its immense and ornate roof construction, and the paintings decorating the ceilings and door panels in the house's parlors, exemplifies the "steamboat Gothic" style. The exterior of the home resembles a layer cake, with a simple ground floor where brick columns support the gallery across the front and halfway back the sides. A double stairway leads from this gallery to the second floor gallery where fluted wood columns with cast-iron Corinthian capitals support an overhanging deck. The main living area is on the second floor instead of the ground level. The attic is a Victorian construction that gives the house a unique look with the hip roof pierced by tall dormers with diamond-paned, Tudor-arched windows.
San Francisco's floor plan is unique as well, but the interior's primary significance lies in the fine murals attributed to Dominique Canova. The cost of San Francisco Plantation House, along with the paintings and other interior decorations, may have given rise to the house's name. One legend holds that the French phrase "son saint-frusquin," or "the shirt off his back," was a description of what the construction of the house cost its first owner, Edmond Marmillion. This became mistranslated into San Francisco. Another legend holds that the name celebrated the port of entry to northern California, then undergoing the gold rush of 1849. A further legend states that the name changed from Sans St. Frusquin to San Francisco when Achille D. Bougere purchased the plantation house in 1879. San Francisco was originally preserved by the efforts of Mr. and Mrs. Clark Thompson. The house is now owned by the San Francisco Plantation Foundation and has been restored to its former glory.
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