Famous for Mardi Gras revelry and Creole hospitality, New Orleans became a popular tourist destination. The Big Easy's nickname and its unofficial motto, Laissez les bons temps rouler (“Let the good times roll”), seemed to belie issues with poverty, unemployment or violent crime; even the political scandals were entertaining.
A complex system of levees, drainage canals and pumps kept the city dry but also caused it to sink below sea level. Hurricanes brought severe flooding, and experts warned that a direct hit would cripple the city. That prediction came true in 2005 with Hurricane Katrina. Lake Pontchartrain's levees crumbled, leaving parts of the city under water and 1,500 people dead.
Hope emerged, though, through grass roots recovery efforts. Rebuilding homes, restoring a distinctive cultural identity and preserving and nurturing a rich musical heritage were key to the city's revival.
Streetcars once again shuttle passengers down Canal Street and the Riverfront, and the St. Charles Avenue line's cars clang and sway along their 13-mile route. The French Quarter buzzes with activity; music spills onto streets, competing with sidewalk singers, violinists, saxophonists and the Steamboat Natchez's calliope.
Residents refuse to be overwhelmed by their troubles—a spirit that harkens back to the first intrepid settlers who called the Louisiana bayous home.
Founders Pierre and Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne arrived in 1699, claiming the region for France. Slavery was introduced almost immediately, with African Americans populating the Tremé neighborhood. African and West Indian rhythms generated there contributed to the birth of jazz. The neighborhood is now a historic district that includes Louis Armstrong Park, a site where enslaved people once gathered.
In the mid-1700s France ceded the city to Spain and the French-speaking ancestors of present-day Cajuns arrived, driven from Acadia (Nova Scotia) by the British and an impending civil war.
Within a month in 1803, Louisiana's ownership passed from Spain to France and then to the United States through the Louisiana Purchase. A clash of cultures commenced: The French kept to the Vieux Carré ("Old Square") and the Americans to the Garden District.
Less than a decade later, the United States and England were at war. The invading army coveted the port and nearly captured it during the Battle of New Orleans, which pitted the British against Gen. Andrew Jackson.
Farming and a successful port made New Orleans a key Civil War target. Captured a year after fighting began, the Crescent City remained under Union rule until Reconstruction ended.
The Storyville district, created just outside the French Quarter to confine prostitution to one locale, flourished until 1917, and Bourbon Street's bawdy reputation arguably traces to a tolerance for promiscuous behavior. A more favorable outcome of the district was its jazz legacy—Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton practiced their music styles in Storyville bordellos.
Partying never ends in the French Quarter. Tourists still line up at Pat O'Brien's for fruity rum Hurricanes and music lovers queue outside Preservation Hall for Dixieland jazz.