Draining New Orleans

The 300-Year Quest to Dewater the Crescent City

By: Richard Campanella

Narrated by: Chris Abernathy

In Draining New Orleans, renowned geographer Richard Campanella recounts the epic challenges and ingenious efforts to dewater the Crescent City. With forays into geography, public health, engineering, architecture, politics, sociology, race relations, and disaster response, he chronicles the herculean attempts to "reclaim" the city's swamps and marshes and install subsurface drainage for massive urban expansion.

The study begins with a vivid description of a festive event on Mardi Gras weekend 1915, which attracted an entourage of elite New Orleanians to the edge of Bayou Barataria to witness the christening of giant water pumps. What transpired in the years and decades that followed can only be understood by examining the large swath of history dating back two centuries earlier and extending through the colonial, antebellum, postbellum, and Progressive eras to modern times.

The consequences of dewatering New Orleans proved both triumphant and tragic. The city's engineering prowess transformed it into a world leader in drainage technology, yet the municipality also fell victim to its own success. Campanella emphasizes the role of determined and sometimes unsavory individuals who spearheaded projects to separate water from dirt, creating lucrative opportunities in the process not only for the community but also for themselves.

©2023 Louisiana State University Press (P)2024 Tantor

More than just drainage.

One of the best histories of New Orleans that I’ve read. It’s amazing how so much ties into the water here. I was waiting for a dryer more technical book, but the author did a fantastic job of telling an interesting and compelling story that kept me intrigued from beginning to end.