Biking River Road: New Orleans to White Castle
"West Bank" - January 5th, 2008
by Taylor Lasseigne |
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| I started before dawn at my home in the Marigny (a neighborhood just east of the French Quarter). First things first, I had to cross the Mississippi River to get over to the West Bank. The only safe option for river crossing via bicycle is the ferry, and the closest ferry to my home is the Canal St. Ferry. I met a gentleman while waiting for the ferry. He had already crossed the river once earlier in the morning to go to his construction job, but he had picked up a nail with his tire in doing so. For some reason that was never quite clear, he was walking his bike back to the West Bank to fix the flat and go back to work. He told me about how he likes to grab a beer on his lunch break and consume the beverage down here by the ferry dock. "No one gives you any trouble down here," he said.
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| A view from the bow of the Canal St. ferry. Left to right: Crescent City Connection Bridge, Creole Queen Paddle-wheeler (the riverboat), and the Riverwalk Shopping Center.
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| After crossing the river, I headed northish up the paved river levee. One of the first major sites is Blaine Kern's Mardi Gras World, a series of warehouses and offices where Mardi Gras is basically born every year. Most of the major floats, sculpted props, and figures of New Orleans' premiere festival come from this location.
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| The Greater New Orleans Bridge, a.k.a. the GNO, a.k.a. the Crescent City Connection Bridge, linking the east and west banks of the river.
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| Jefferson Parish according to the water tower. Little Richard at the Boomtown! Honestly, I thought he was dead.
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| The Harvey Canal.
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| The Huey P. Long Bridge, completed in 1935 as the first bridge to span the Mississippi River in Louisiana.
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| I arrived at the Avondale Union Pacific train yard and was instantly confused. You would think that it is easy to simply follow a river, but roads veer, cross-streets confuse, and then train yards throw everything out of order. I just kept riding and hoped for the best. In the end I think I just lucked out.
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| The American Legion building in Ama, LA (pop. 1,200) - St. Charles Parish.
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All my life, crossing from the New Orleans metro area to St. Charles Parish en route to my home in Lafourche Parish, I have referred to this bridge as the Luling Bridge, but it is officially named the Hale Boggs Memorial Bridge. The following Wikipedia article sums up the bridge's history well:
The Luling Bridge (also known as the Hale Boggs Memorial Bridge) is a cable-stayed bridge over the Mississippi River in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana. It is named for United States Congressman Hale Boggs. The bridge was dedicated by Governor David C. Treen and Bishop Stanley Ott of Baton Rouge, then opened to traffic on October 8, 1983 connecting Louisiana Highway 18 on the West Bank and Louisiana Highway 48 on the East Bank. Ten years later, the Luling Bridge was incorporated into the newly completed Interstate 310.
The Luling Bridge was the first major cable-stayed bridge in the United States, although it was not the first (that designation belongs to the Cable Bridge in Washington). The bridge has an uncommon design which uses very few cables. Additionally, the bridge deck is closer to a box girder in design than a suspended deck. The bridge has a bronze color intended to blend with the muddy waters of the Mississippi River.
The Luling Bridge was also the first large weathering steel bridge in the United States, intended to protect the bridge from corrosion in the wet and humid conditions of coastal Louisiana. Unfortunately, while the outside of the bridge has performed excellently, the inside has shown significant rust due to a design flaw which allows insufficient airflow within structural columns.
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| You have to use your imagination with signs like this.
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click image for closer view
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Home Place Plantation. Historical marker reads:
HOME PLACE. Built in 1790s, this French Colonial raised cottage is of West Indies bousillage construction. Owners included Labranche, Fortier, Gaillaird. Keller family ownership since 1885. National Historic Landmark.
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| The Holy Rosary Cemetery. Wow, what an absolute travesty! Yes, it is ultimately very cool to be buried right alongside the Mississippi, but to be interred on property COMPLETELY SURROUNDED by noisy industrial plants, leaking their toxic gloom into the air, well I would hardly call that resting in peace.
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| I'm not the only one who thinks that this is heinous. A friend of mine told me a story about this cemetery in which family members at a burial hastened the ritual because those in attendance were visibly bothered by the circumstances. What a shame, for a person's last day to be remembered like that, rushed prayer, some quick flowers, and SLAM! Everybody jumps in their cars and speeds back down the river to the after-party. To me, this is just another strong argument for cremation.
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click image for posted emergency plan
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Waterford 3 Nuclear Unit in in Killona, Louisiana. Wikipedia article states:
This plant has one Combustion Engineering two-loop pressurized water reactor. The plant produces 1,218 megawatts of electricity since the sites last refuel in May 2008. It has a dry ambient pressure containment building. Waterford is operated by Entergy Nuclear and is owned by Entergy Louisiana, Inc.
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