New Basin Canal and West End, early 1950s

ID: 236
This file appears in: New Canal Lighthouse
New Basin Canal and West End, early 1950s

Aerial photograph includes the US Coast Guard Station (lower middle), First Canal Lighthouse (lower left), and the Southern Yacht Club (foreground). LaGarde Hospital is visible in the upper left hand corner. This image captured the New Basin Canal before the once essential, commercial waterway was mostly filled in during the 1950's to create the Pontchartrain Expressway & West End Boulevard.

Courtesy of Louisiana Division/City Archives, New Orleans Public Library

This file appears in: New Canal Lighthouse

By Patrick Stephen
In the 1830s, Irish and German immigrants dug the New Basin Canal as a link between New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain. The lake end of the canal featured the New Canal Lighthouse, originally an octagonal, wooden tower resting on pilings driven into…