The development of the port of New-Orleans

The development of the port of New-Orleans is the title of a short geography/economic thesis presented in 1954 by Jacques Chirac (as of 2005 president of French republic) to the Institute of political studies of Paris, which he had entered three years ago.

Related Topics:
1954 - Jacques Chirac - As of 2005 - President of French republic - Institute of political studies of Paris

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It was no surprised that Chirac should have chosen such a topic, since he has a real admiration for the United States, where it spent summer 1953 as student in Boston.

Related Topics:
United States - 1953 - Boston

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The 182-page typewritten work, directed by the professor Jean Chardonnet, is illustrated by photographs, but also of schemes and diagrams.

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Chirac discusses the "spirit" of the "black docker": "' ' That is striking when the port is visited, the docker does not appear to provide a very large effort physical, nor to show haste in his manual work (what would be contrary remainder with the psychology of the Americans of the South of the United States in general and Black in particular)."

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With respect to the situation of the port and flood risks, one can read also there: "' ' to tell the truth, the site of New-Orleans, if it were appropriate for the establishment of a port, was unfavorable to that of a city.' '" "' ' From the very start, indeed, it had to be protected from the floods by raising the natural lifting. Behind of the city, the ground drops towards marshes which, in several points, are below the lake Ponchartrain or sea level." So that "water was, with the Indians, the large enemy one of the colonists. It is indeed so close that the houses, for a long time, did not have cellars and that, in the cemeteries, the tombs were built in height ' ' "."' ' Mississippi always posed, because of its risings, of serious problems at the city of New-Orleans for defense against the floods. It is not, indeed, even necessary that precipitations are very abundant; a surplus compared to the normal of 51 millimetres in four January to April 1927 was enough to cause the strongest rising, most prolonged and most disastrous which was recorded. The river went up 6,4 meters to New-Orleans, and this figure would have been exceeded if the dams had not yielded in a number of points all along the interior course of the river. The flood covered 73 000 km2 and caused the death of 2 000 people ' '."

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