The Impossible but Inevitable City
Before New Orleans was settled, it was known to be a problematic site. Geographers and historians even characterize it as “the impossible but inevitable city” (Powell 2012, 02). It is obvious at first glance that there had to be a city located at the mouth of the Mississippi River. The spot that New Orleans sits on is very unusual because that particular section of the Mississippi is where a delta has formed. This is very rare with North America rivers because most deltas are flooded by the sea. This made New Orleans prime real estate as being a big port city where trade could flourish. This section of the river could allow large deep water vessels to enter the mouth of the river, allow alongshore shipping while being able to avoid crossing the open water of the Gulf, and was able to be a destination to off load goods. With so many reasons there were to settle the land, came so many reasons not to. Much of the land that the city now sits on is below sea level, which made the construction of levees absolutely vital for the advancement of the city. New Orleans’s spot was chosen adjacent to a natural levee between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, which was the main reason that civilization was able to occur. The site was in the middle of a swamp, surrounded by sludge and water. “Naturally fenced in, the town had a dense, urban character from the beginning” (Sublett 2008, 10). The soil is primarily made up of clay, which is about the consistency of glue, making the Mississippi Delta a very dangerous place to build and construct. In fact, buildings are still settling and shifting. Before the technology for electrical pumps and manmade levee systems in the 1890’s, development and expansion for New Orleans was constrained to a smaller area. Environmental problems have always pounded the terrain making flooding a constant issue even after the inventions of modern technology. Among these issues and more, the city still survives and thrives today. Peirce Lewis, the author of New Orleans-The Making of an Urban Landscape states that the city is “the apparent paradox between excellent location and miserable location” (Lewis 1976, 17).