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Culture of New Orleans Louisiana

Streetcar . Longest Bridge . Jazzfest

In the last month of the century, streetcar service returned to Canal Street, albeit for oniy a short stretch. The streetcar tracks on the city's main street were torn up in 1964, considered a sign of progress as the old train cars were replaced by buses.

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NEW ORLEANS

Its not a "Trolley" or a "Train". It's a STREETCAR. or Street Car.
In the last month of the century, streetcar service returned to Canal Street, albeit for oniy a short stretch. The streetcar tracks on the city’s main street were torn up in 1964, considered a sign of progress as the old train cars were replaced by buses. With only the St. Charles Avenue line the vestige of what once was a web of streetcars woven across the city, rail transportation seemed to be on the way out. But the streetcars made a comeback, first with the short Riverfront line and with the planned rebirth of a line once again running the length of Canal Street.

When it opened in 1956, the Causeway may have been the world’s longest bridge, but it was a bridge to nowhere. It spanned Lake Pontchartrain to connect New Orleans to the mostly rural, sparsely populated St. Tammany Parish. But by 1969, a second span was needed. With western St. Tammany booming at the end of the century, thanks in part to the Causeway, the bridge is groaning under the pressure of the added trafflc. Also in the 1950s, the Greater New Orleans Bridge connected New Orleans with its West Bank and spurred development there. A parallel span was eventually needed there as well, and the bridge was renamed the Crescent City Connection.

In April 1970, George Wein, producer of successful jazz and folk festivals in Newport, RI., staged the first New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, a variation on the previous year’s International New Orleans Jazz Festival, in the Municipal Auditorium and what is now Congo Square. Two years later, the outdoor Louisiana Heritage Fair portion of Jazzfest moved to the infield of the Fair Grounds. By the end of the century, Jazzfest had grown into an event that attracts 400,000 visitors and international acclaim each year. The festival was one manifestation of a trend that had begun in 1961, when Allen Jaffe founded Preservation Hall on St. Peter Street. Whether the venue was the Fest, Preservation Hall or clubs like Tipitina’s, the aim was the same: preserving the Crescent City’s musical heritage.
http://gatewayno.com/history/louisiana.html

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