17th Street Canal

History

The canal that was to become later known as the 17th Street Canal seems to have had its origin at the start of the 1850s as a canal dug through swampy ground to raise a parallel right of way where the Jefferson and Lake Pontchartrain Railway was built. The railway, in business from 1853 through 1864, connected the town of Carrollton, Louisiana (along the Mississippi River front) with a shipping port on Lake Pontchartrain at what became Bucktown, Louisiana, a distance of about 8 km (5.0 mi). At the time, most of the land between the two terminals was undeveloped swamp.

Meanwhile, in 1858, a secondary canal was built to aid in drainage in the low swampy area in "back of town" from Carrollton, with its head at what is now the intersection of Dublin and Palmetto streets, connecting to the Railway canal a short distance on the river side of the Metairie Ridge.

The railway was discontinued on December 31, 1864, as competing rail lines between the river and lake were more successful. The city of New Orleans annexed Carrollton, and the canal became the boundary line between Orleans Parish and Jefferson Parish. As the canal marked the up-river limit of Orleans Parish, it became known as the Upperline Canal.

The spur canal in the back of Carrollton was beside a projected street numbered "17th Street" (although at the time there was little actual development in back of Claiborne Avenue), and that canal was thus the first to be known as the "17th Street Canal", a name which would later come to commonly refer to the large canal which this is connected to.

Improved drainage with pumping stations

By the 1870s, a steam engine powered pump known as the "Dublin Street Machine" at the back of the Carrollton neighborhood was used to drain that neighborhood, pumping the water out the Upperline Canal. Use of the canal to pump water from the streets of the city into Lake Pontchartrain grew with the city. The Claiborne Canal connected with the 17th and Upperline Canal system via a canal along Dublin Avenue; thus the canal served to carry rain water to the lake from the majority of Uptown New Orleans above the New Basin Canal. Another canal, Hoey's Canal, was added connecting to the Upperline from up river to help drain the back of the Jefferson Parish communities along the riverfront, now known as "Old Jefferson".

In 1894, "17th Street" was renamed "Palmetto Street" (later redesignated Palmetto Avenue), but the canal continued to be popularly known by the old street name.

In 1899 a new pumping station was opened atop the Canal a couple blocks back from Metairie Road. In the early 20th century, new high-efficiency pumps designed by A. Baldwin Wood were installed, and remain in operation.

At the start of the 21st century, Pumping Station 6, or the Metairie Pumping Station, astride the canal had 15 pumps capable of moving over six billion gallons of water a day through the station. Runoff from substantial areas of Uptown New Orleans, Metairie, and surrounding neighborhoods drains into the canals and basins on the river side of the pumping station, which pulls the water up into the portion of the 17th Street Canal flowing into Lake Pontchartrain.

20th century: Residential development of the "Back of Town"

When the Station 6 was constructed, it was at the "back" end of the developed part of town. As the area alongside the canal closer to the lake was largely undeveloped swamp, it was originally of little concern if waters pumped out of the city topped the canal and flowed into the swamp during heavy rains.

In the late 1920s and the 1930s, a project dredged fill along the lakefront, creating new land in what had been Lake Pontchartrain and creating a sizable levee along the lake side. However, no efforts were made to raise the swampland between Metairie Ridge and the new lakefront fill. The areas along the Canal from Metairie Ridge to the Lake were substantially developed for residential use after World War II, and levees along the "back" sections of the Canal were raised. The water level of the canal is often significantly higher than the surrounding streets.

After Hurricane Betsy, improved flood protection for the city and its canals to cope with storm surge from hurricanes was mandated, resulting in increasing the size and height of the canal levees. In 1998 Hurricane Georges elevated the level of Lake Pontchartrain, pushing lake waters into the canal. A report noted that there was at least one place where the water came within inches of topping the flood wall. An upgrade of the canal levees, flood walls, and bridges began in 1999. The canal was considered in good shape at the start of the 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season.

Before Katrina arrived, the 17th Street Canal was the largest and most important drainage canal in the city of New Orleans. Operating with Pumping Station No. 6 – which at that time was the most powerful pumping station in the world – the 17th Street Canal was capable of conveying 9,200 cubic feet per second (cfs) of water, more than the Orleans Avenue and London Avenue Canals combined. (The Orleans Avenue Canal, at maximum capacity, could pump 2,200 cfs and the London Avenue Canal, at maximum capacity, could pump 5,200 cfs.)