National WWII Museum Campus and Higgins Boat
Why is it significant?
You stand in the expansive outdoor courtyard of The National WWII Museum at 945 Magazine Street, officially designated by the United States Congress as America's official national museum commemorating the global struggle of World War II.
Key Facts
| Place | National WWII Museum Campus and Higgins Boat |
|---|---|
| Address | 945 Magazine St, New Orleans, LA 70130, United States |
| Geo Coordinates | 29.94280, -90.07000 |
| Part of Walk | Warehouse and Arts District to Mississippi Riverfront: The American Sector |
| Generated | Generated |
You stand in the expansive outdoor courtyard of The National WWII Museum at 945 Magazine Street, officially designated by the United States Congress as America's official national museum commemorating the global struggle of World War II. Founded in June 2000 by renowned military historian and author Stephen Ambrose, the museum originated as the National D-Day Museum before expanding into a sprawling six-acre, multi-pavilion campus that attracts over seven hundred thousand visitors each year.
Why is America's National World War II Museum located in New Orleans rather than Washington? The answer lies with a brilliant New Orleans boat builder named Andrew Jackson Higgins.
In the late 1930s, Higgins designed shallow-draft wooden landing craft for operating in Louisiana bayous and swamps. When the military needed landing vessels that could beach on foreign shores without harbors, Higgins adapted his design into the LCVP—the Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel—universally known as the "Higgins Boat." Manufactured around the clock in seven New Orleans factories by over thirty thousand workers—including women, African Americans, and immigrants who were paid equal wages based on skill—Higgins produced over twenty thousand landing boats. General Dwight D. Eisenhower famously declared in 1964: "Andrew Higgins is the man who won the war for us. If Higgins had not designed and built those LCVPs, we never could have landed over an open beach. The whole strategy of the war would have been different." Inside the pavilions, authentic Higgins boats, B-17 Flying Fortress bombers, and Sherman tanks stand alongside deeply moving personal testimonies of veterans.
Looking up at the massive steel canopy overhead as vintage swing music drifts from the pavilion entrance, you feel the awe-inspiring industrial might and sacrifice that preserved world democracy. New Orleans' boatbuilders literally carried the Allied forces to victory.
Walk northeast along Andrew Higgins Boulevard to view the soaring Bollinger Canopy of Peace.