The Emergence of the Steamboat 1812
The greatest changes in New Orleans came from the invention and use of the steamboat. It was the collected work of Robert Livingston, the American negotiator for the Louisiana Purchase, and the steamboat pioneer, Robert Fulton. Together, they thought it was necessary to ensure the continued success of the city as a leading port. The Mississippi and Ohio rivers became highways for steamboats filled with cotton, sugar, and other agricultural and manufactured goods that eventually would all make it to and from New Orleans. The rivers acted as highways for not only the US but for Europe and South and Central America in which they would all pass through New Orleans.
The River and the Railroads
Following the end of the Golden Age for New Orleans, the railroad systems ended up not completely replacing the river for a transportation route. Instead, it drove the steamboats out of business. The railroads were not efficient enough to compete with the river at hauling large bulk cargo to a destination, so the railways carried off the Midwest's general cargo while the Mississippi hauled the big cargo. Some of the small cargo leaving out of New Orleans would end up being cotton. After the war, the South rose again and supplied Europe and New England over 10 million bales of southern grown cotton a year by the 1890's. Up until now with this resurrection of commerce, railroads were somewhat delayed in passing through New Orleans. By the 1870's, the city became the hub for deep Southern rail because New Orleans was the only big city in the South and had a long experience of handling cargo.
Below Sea Level
Up until the earth 20th century, construction was limited only to areas on higher ground. Most construction was done along the Mississippi River front as well as areas along natural levees and bayous. This was the reason why New Orleans was given the nickname "The Crescent City" due to the shape it took around the river bend. There were pumps set up to help with flooding but they were inadequate. By 1910, and engineer named A. Baldwin Wood put in place a plan to drain the city by inacting larger pumps which allowed the city to further expand out.
Modernizing the inner city 1920's
Most of this new effort to modernize the downtown area happened along Canal Street, the city's commercial mecca.
The New Port
Even with the Cotton Exposition, the main economic foundation of city was the port of New Orleans. While railroads put steamboats out of business, bigger and faster ships were making the old port out of date. "The big new ships required deeper navigation channels, efficient means of getting cargo to and from the wharves, and above all an integrated administration of the port to ensure that things were to run smoothly and that facilities were kept in competitive shape" (Lewis 1976, 54). At the time, the larger ships were hanging to dock for days outside the port just to wait for water level to become higher for safe passage. This was an inefficient way of doing things that made shipping companies unwilling to go to the Gulf port with their expensive cargo. This sparked work to be done on the Port that included the corps of engineers to dredge and build the South Pass jetties in 1879 that forced the river into a narrow channel and flushed the bars away.
The Emergence of the Canal Streetcar 1893
The plan for a railroad in New Orleans started in 1831 and actually began construction in February 1833 as the “New Orleans and Carrolton Railroad”. With the line, came higher densities and surrounding urbanization. A main issue that came with the line was the problems with soot and noise that was produced, so transport was switched to cars powered by horses and mules. In the late 19th century, the desire to have a better mode of transportation led to the invention of the Streetcar in 1869. The first designs were made by Dr. Emile Lamm, who took ideas from the San Francisco cable car system. The streetcar finally began transport in February 1, 1893. It ran along St. Charles and Carrolton Avenues. By 1900, the streetcar lines were extended on Carrolton Avenue that formed a two way belt-line.
The Suburban Explosion
During the 1940's, New Orleans' metropolitan area exploded with growth. It first went towards the swamps of the East Bank section of Jefferson Parish and later towards the eastern portions of Orleans Parish. Through the years of 1950 to 1975 roughly, the metropolitan area doubled in size. This was a very sudden expansion, making two parts to the city of New Orleans; one being the old city and the other being suburbia. There were differences in population and appearance and the suburbia portion no longer had the compact European nature of the old city. With the explosion of suburbs, came a necessity of having automobiles to get around. "As in dozens of other North American cities, New Orleans' suburban landscape is compounded of new cars, new roads, and insatiable appetite for inexpensive houses with open space, deficient land use controls, unrestrained greed by land sellers and house builders, a studied reluctance of municipalities to cooperate with one another, and an almost pathological desire of local governmental officials to see their particular bailiwicks grow" (Lewis 1976, 75).