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Draining New Orleans - The 300-Year Quest to Dewater the Crescent City (Hardcover)
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Draining New Orleans - The 300-Year Quest to Dewater the Crescent City (Hardcover)
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In Draining New Orleans, the first full-length book devoted to "the
world's toughest drainage problem," 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. President Woodrow Wilson, connected via phoneline from the
White House, planned to activate the station with the push of a
button, effectively draining the West Bank of New Orleans. 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-to the geological formation and indigenous
occupation of this delta-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. Rather than a story about mud and
machinery, this is a history of people, power, and the making of
place. 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.
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