Moon Walk: New Orleans Riverfront Revealed

From Old Muddy's edge to the French Quarter's soul — stories the Mississippi kept secret

New Orleans · 12 stops · 2.2 km · ~1.2 h · Generated March 2026

1. 1. Governor Nicholls Street Wharf

   Governor Nicholls Street Wharf, New Orleans

   You're standing at the Governor Nicholls Street Wharf... the downriver end of one of the most unlikely public spaces in New Orleans. For most of the twentieth century, this stretch of riverfront was Sealed Off. Warehouses, wharves, railroad tracks, flood walls... the Mississippi was right here, but ordinary people couldn't reach it.

   So who was Governor Nicholls? His story is almost too dramatic to believe. Francis Redding Tillou Nicholls was a Confederate brigadier general who lost his left arm at the First Battle of Winchester in eighteen sixty-two... and then lost his left foot at Chancellorsville the following year. A double amputee, he somehow parlayed his battlefield sacrifice into political power, winning the governorship of Louisiana in eighteen seventy-six. But here's the twist... his opponent, Stephen Packard, Also claimed victory. On January eighth, eighteen seventy-seven, both men were sworn in as governor on the Same day, in different buildings. For months, Louisiana had Two governors, each backed by armed militia. It took the Compromise of eighteen seventy-seven to settle the matter.

   Now, look up. Atop this wharf, the United States Coast Guard built a traffic control tower with red and green signals to manage the enormous vessels rounding Algiers Point, one of the sharpest bends on the lower Mississippi. And here's a detail most visitors never hear... when ship captains radio in to that tower, they don't use its official name. They simply call the controller "Governor Nick."

   But the real transformation happened in the nineteen seventies, when Mayor Maurice Landrieu — known as "Moon," a childhood nickname his older brother gave him — championed tearing down derelict wharves to build a pedestrian promenade. It cost just two hundred sixteen thousand dollars and opened in nineteen seventy-six. They called it the Moon Walk... not for the lunar landings, but for the mayor himself. It was the first time in generations that New Orleans residents could simply... walk to their own river.

   This wharf is now being transformed once more — demolition began in twenty twenty-five to create a new public park. The river keeps flowing. The city keeps reclaiming it.

2. 2. French Market — America's Oldest

   French Market, 1008 N Peters St, New Orleans

   You're standing in the oldest public market in America. But here's what most people don't realize... this place was already Ancient before any European ever set foot here.

   What was here before the French? Before the Spanish? Before anyone thought to name it?

   The Native peoples — the Choctaw, the Chitimacha, the Tunica, and the Natchez nations — had been trading on this very ground since at least sixteen seventy-five... more than Fifty years before New Orleans was even founded. They called this region Bulbancha... "the place of many tongues." And that name tells you everything. This was a crossroads where languages mixed, goods changed hands, and cultures collided along the banks of the great river.

   Then the Spanish took notice. Around seventeen eighty-two, they built the city's first formal market structure. But a seventeen seventy-nine ordinance reveals Why... the city declared that "great abuses" were being committed with provisions "exposed to the elements." So they demanded a covered building for public health.

   The oldest structure still standing here was built in eighteen thirteen — the Meat Market, designed by city surveyor Jacques Tanesse. And here's a detail most visitors never learn: this original market was called "the Meat Shops," and it was the Only place in the entire French Quarter legally permitted to sell meat. The name "French Market" only came later, once that monopoly faded.

   Now, the coffee. You can probably smell it right now from Café du Monde. But the story of coffee here doesn't begin with them. It begins with a woman named Rose Nicaud — a formerly enslaved woman who bought her own freedom in the early eighteen hundreds. She sold coffee from a portable cart she rolled through this market on Sundays. Visitors wrote about her "sparkling coffee," as dark and flowing as ink. Her little stand inspired other freed women to pursue their own independence... one cup at a time. Café du Monde didn't arrive until eighteen sixty-two, becoming the market's oldest official tenant.

   Stand here for a moment and breathe it in. Over two hundred years of buying, selling, and gathering... on ground where people have been trading for more than Three centuries. Bulbancha endures.

3. 3. Moon Walk Promenade — The Name Behind the Name

   Moonwalk Riverfront Park, 453 St Peter St, New Orleans

   Take a deep breath and look at the Mississippi River in front of you. That brown, rolling water... for most of the twentieth century, you would Not have been able to stand here and see it. Not even close.

   You see, when Jackson Square was first laid out in the seventeen twenties, it looked straight out over the Mississippi. But over the decades, that view vanished. Levees were raised after devastating floods. Warehouses crowded the banks. And port authorities erected barriers that sealed off the riverfront entirely. The general public was separated from the water by a wall of wharves and sheds that prevented all contact... visual or otherwise.

   This promenade you're standing on changed everything. And its name? It has nothing to do with the dance move or the lunar landing. It's named after one man... Mayor Maurice "Moon" Landrieu.

   Now, even the nickname has a story. "Moon" wasn't his name at all. He was born Maurice Edwin Landrieu in nineteen thirty. The nickname actually belonged to his Older Brother Joseph, who had a big round face the boys called "Moon." Joseph eventually tired of it and started calling his little brother "Little Moon"... and it stuck for life. Maurice legally changed his first name to Moon in nineteen sixty nine, just in time for his mayoral campaign.

   But here's what makes this promenade truly remarkable. Moon Landrieu wasn't just a builder... he was a civil rights Pioneer. In nineteen sixty, as a freshly elected state legislator, he cast what was sometimes the Only vote against segregationist bills in the Louisiana legislature. They called him "Moon the Coon" to try to break him. It didn't work! He won the mayor's office in nineteen seventy with ninety percent of the African American vote, integrated City Hall from top to bottom, and then turned his attention Here... to this riverfront.

   In nineteen seventy, crews began tearing down the old wharves. The one mile long wooden walkway was completed for just two hundred and sixteen thousand dollars, built right opposite Jackson Square. It was originally a simple wooden boardwalk with shade trees and benches. Since then, it's been rebuilt Three times... the latest version dedicated in twenty eighteen by Moon's own son, Mayor Mitch Landrieu, as a tribute to his father during the city's three hundredth anniversary.

   Moon Landrieu passed away in twenty twenty two at age ninety two. But stand here, feel that river breeze, and know... this view, this moment, exists because one man believed a city should never be walled off from its own river.

4. 4. Café du Monde — Beignets Since 1862

   Café du Monde, 800 Decatur St, New Orleans

   Take a deep breath. You're standing right here at eight hundred Decatur Street... at one of the oldest coffee stands in America. Café du Monde. The name means "Café of the World," or some translate it as "the People's Café." And there's a reason for that.

   This spot has been pouring coffee since eighteen sixty-two. Think about that year for a moment. The American Civil War was raging, and New Orleans had just fallen to Union forces in April of eighteen sixty-two. The city was occupied, chaotic, uncertain. And yet, right here, a man named Fred Koeniger opened a humble coffee stand inside the Butchers' Market building... so patrons could drink coffee and indulge in fried doughnuts before shopping for their meat and produce.

   Now here's a detail most people walk right past. The building you're looking at... the Meat Market structure erected in eighteen thirteen... was designed by city surveyor Jacques Tanesse and built by Gurlie and Guillot. It replaced an earlier Spanish market from seventeen ninety-one that was destroyed by a hurricane. And nearby in the French Market complex, a structure known as the Bazaar Market was built in eighteen seventy, designed by Joseph Abeilard... one of America's First African-American architects.

   But what about that distinctive coffee? Why does it taste different from anything else you've ever had? During the Civil War, Union naval blockades cut off the port of New Orleans. With shipments halted, desperate New Orleanians began mixing things with their coffee to stretch the supply... acorns, beets, even burnt sugar. But chicory root... that stuck. Just as the French had done during Napoleon's blockades, resourceful New Orleanians stretched their precious coffee by mixing it with ground, roasted chicory root, which could be grown locally. What started as desperation became Tradition.

   And there's one more story that gives me chills. When Hurricane Katrina forced Café du Monde to close for seven weeks in two thousand five... it was the longest shutdown in the café's entire history. Before that, the longest had been just two weeks, caused by Hurricane Betsy in nineteen sixty-five. Over one hundred news organizations, including Abc's Good Morning America, covered the reopening. The café reopened to the sounds of jazz, and cheering patrons danced a second line among the crowded tables. Beignets and café au lait... flowing again like a heartbeat restored.

   And here's one last twist. After the Vietnam War, Vietnamese refugees settled along the Gulf Coast and discovered that Café du Monde's chicory coffee tasted remarkably like what they drank back home... a shared French colonial legacy. Many began working here, and soon families were sending those iconic orange-yellow tins to relatives across America. A coffee born from a Civil War blockade... embraced by refugees from the other side of the world. That's New Orleans for you.

5. 5. The Pontalba Buildings

   Lower Pontalba Building, 523 St Ann St, New Orleans

   Look up at these gorgeous red-brick row houses stretching the full length of Jackson Square. These are the Pontalba Buildings... and the woman who built them had one of the most extraordinary lives in all of American history.

   MicaEla Leonarda Antonia Almonester was born right here in New Orleans on November sixth, seventeen ninety-five. When she was just two and a half years old, her father Don Andres Almonester y Rojas died, leaving her the sole heir to a considerable fortune. And what a fortune it was. Her father had funded the reconstruction of Saint Louis Cathedral after the great fire of seventeen eighty-eight, as well as the construction of the Cabildo and the Presbytere... the very buildings you can see surrounding this square.

   At fifteen, MicaEla married her French cousin, Joseph-Xavier Célestin Delfau de Pontalba, and moved to France. The marriage was not successful. She became a virtual prisoner at the de Pontalba chateau in Mont-l'Évêque, near Senlis. And here's where the story turns dark. For Twenty years, her father-in-law attempted to drive her to abandon Célestin so he could seize her fortune. He tried dozens of strategies... including at one point instructing the entire Pontalba household to pretend she was invisible.

   When all else failed... on October nineteenth, eighteen thirty-four, he stormed into her bedroom and shot MicaEla Four times in the chest at point-blank range with a pair of dueling pistols. One bullet passed through the hand she had instinctively raised to cover the gun's muzzle. Her left breast was disfigured and two of her fingers were permanently mutilated. That evening, the baron committed suicide in his study by shooting himself in the head with the same dueling pistols.

   But MicaEla Survived. And what did she do? She fought back... in court! After several more lawsuits, a civil law judge ordered the restitution of her property, and she was granted a legal separation from her husband. Then she came home to New Orleans and built... All of this.

   Inspired by the Palais Royal in Paris, she added Greek Revival details and her own creole heritage to build sixteen classic three-story row houses on Each side of the cathedral. She hired architect James Gallier to make preliminary sketches, but they had a falling out. Another prominent architect, Henry Howard, was retained... and HE also left the job after clashing with the baroness. She monitored the work so vigilantly that she was even reported to have donned men's work clothes and scaled the ladders at the construction site!

   Now look closely at the iron balconies. See those elegant initials woven through the ironwork? That poetic A P monogram, standing for Almonester and Pontalba, was designed by MicaEla's own son Gaston, who was a gifted artist.

   And one final remarkable detail. With money from her mother's estate, she also commissioned architect Louis Visconti to build a mansion on the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris. That mansion... is known today as the Hôtel de Pontalba, and it serves as the official residence of the United States Ambassador to France. Over the years, these very apartments have housed literary giants including Sherwood Anderson, William Faulkner, and Katherine Anne Porter.

   A woman shot four times at point-blank range, left for dead in a French château... who rose to reshape the heart of two of the world's greatest cities. That is the story written in every brick and iron curl of the Pontalba Buildings.

6. 6. The Presbytère

   The Presbytère, 751 Chartres St, New Orleans

   Take a look at the building to the right of Saint Louis Cathedral... the Presbytère. It looks grand and purposeful, doesn't it? But here's the thing... this building was Never used for what it was designed for.

   Designed in seventeen ninety-one to serve as the rectory of the Cathedral of Saint Louis, the Presbytère took more than two decades to complete. Originally called Casa Curial, or "Ecclesiastical House," it was built on the site of the residence of the Capuchin monks. But despite the holy name and holy intentions... the Presbytère was never used by the clergy. Instead, it held commercial enterprises until eighteen thirty-four, when it became a courthouse.

   Now, the man who paid for all of this was Don Andrés Almonester y Roxas, a Spanish notary who arrived in New Orleans with modest means. Born in Mairena del Alcor, Spain, in seventeen twenty-four, he became a philanthropist today chiefly remembered for his numerous charitable benefactions to New Orleans. After the Great New Orleans Fire of seventeen eighty-eight, Don Almonester funded a public school, a charity hospital at the then-considerable cost of one hundred fourteen thousand dollars, and rebuilt the buildings on either side of the cathedral, the hospital, a chapel for the Ursulines, and founded the leper hospital. The man essentially rebuilt this city out of his own pocket!

   And here's a detail most people miss. Look up at the roof. See that elegant French Mansard roof with the Cupola on top? That was Not part of the original Spanish design. In the eighteen forties, Baroness Pontalba, Almonester's own daughter, planned French-inspired renovations to her private buildings on Jackson Square. Her proposed renovations motivated the city council to add a French-style Mansard roof to both the Presbytère and the Cabildo, giving the buildings the appearance they have today.

   But the Cupola has its Own wild story. A Cupola was added in eighteen forty-seven and was visible in photographs from around nineteen hundred... but it went missing during the New Orleans Hurricane of nineteen fifteen and was not recovered. Gone. Just... vanished in the storm. For ninety years, the Presbytère sat there, lopsided compared to its twin, the Cabildo. It wasn't until two thousand five that the Cupola, lost in that nineteen fifteen hurricane, was finally replaced.

   And at the time of the LouisiAna Purchase in eighteen oh three... only the first floor of the Presbytère was complete. So when the United States took possession of this territory in one of history's greatest real estate deals... this building was still half-finished, sitting right here on the square.

   Today, inside these walls, you'll find two permanent exhibits that capture the soul of this city. One of celebration and one of resilience. The Mardi Gras exhibit offers rare glimpses into the secretive social club society from which modern-day krewes evolved. And the Hurricane Katrina exhibit... it took five years of collecting before museum staff were ready to display the vast array of artifacts that tell a deeply personal story of the people affected by that life-changing disaster.

   Celebration and survival, side by side... in a building that was never meant to be what it became. That's New Orleans for you.

7. 7. St. Louis Cathedral

   St. Louis Cathedral, 615 Pere Antoine Alley, New Orleans

   Look at those incredible three steeples rising above Jackson Square. You are standing before Saint Louis Cathedral... the oldest continuously active Roman Catholic cathedral in the United States. But here's what most people don't realize. The building you're looking at is actually the Third church to stand on this very ground.

   The story begins in seventeen eighteen, when French explorer Bienville traced out a town plan for New Orleans and placed a church right here, at the heart of everything. A French military engineer named Adrien de Pauger chose this exact site... but died before the building was finished. His last wish? To be buried inside the unfinished walls. And it's believed that request was granted.

   That first permanent church, completed in seventeen twenty-seven, served the city for six decades. Then came the catastrophe. On Good Friday, March twenty-first, seventeen eighty-eight, fire broke out on Chartres Street. According to a well-known legend, residents rushed to the church and begged the priest to ring the warning bells. But he refused... because it was Good Friday, a day of penance, and bells were considered signs of Joy. Whether true or not, the fire destroyed eighty percent of the French Quarter, including the church.

   The very next day, a wealthy Spanish nobleman named Don Andres Almonester y Roxas offered to rebuild the cathedral entirely at his own expense. He spent fifty thousand dollars... a staggering fortune in those days. The new church opened its doors on Christmas Eve, seventeen ninety-four. And Don Andres? He's Still here... entombed beneath the floor with his young daughter Andrea.

   But the drama didn't end there! In eighteen fifty, during a major renovation, the central tower suddenly Collapsed, bringing down part of the roof and walls. The architect, a Frenchman named de Pouilly, was fired despite it being the contractor's fault. His reputation was ruined... yet his distinctive design was completed as planned.

   Now listen for the bells. The largest one, still ringing every hour above you, dates to eighteen nineteen. Its name? Victoire... French for Victory. It was cast to honor Andrew Jackson's triumph at the Battle of New Orleans. Jackson himself attended a solemn thanksgiving Mass right here on January twenty-third, eighteen fifteen.

   And one more secret. On April twenty-fifth, nineteen oh nine, a mysterious explosion rocked this cathedral... a nitroglycerin bomb placed in the choir loft. Stained glass shattered into the streets. Miraculously, no one was injured. Two men were arrested, but the charges were dropped. To this day, no one knows who did it... or why.

8. 8. Jackson Square — Place d'Armes

   Jackson Square, 700 Decatur St, New Orleans

   Welcome to Jackson Square... or as the French once called it, the Place d'Armes. This modest two-and-a-half-acre patch of ground is the Oldest public space in New Orleans, and it has witnessed more history than most entire cities.

   Can you imagine? Where artists now hang their paintings on the iron fence and fortune tellers read tarot cards... this was once nothing more than a muddy field used for military drills... and public executions.

   The story begins in seventeen twenty-one, when French engineers laid out a plan for the new colonial capital of La Louisiane. They conceived a fortified town at the bend of the Mississippi River, with this square at its heart. The design was actually inspired by one of the oldest squares in Paris... the famous Place des Vosges.

   Now, here's what most people don't know. On November thirtieth, eighteen oh three, Spanish officials formally handed Louisiana back to France. Just Three Weeks later, on December twentieth, France turned around and handed it to the United States... right here, with a flag-raising ceremony in this very square. The documents were signed in the Cabildo, that elegant building just to the left of Saint Louis Cathedral. But the Real spectacle was out here, where General Claiborne's American troops filled the plaza. He later wrote that the American flag was "unfurled amidst the reiterated acclamation of thousands."

   But this square holds darker memories too. After the eighteen eleven German Coast Uprising... the Largest slave rebellion in United States history... three enslaved people were hanged right here. The heads of executed rebels were placed on the city's gates as a grim warning.

   Now look at those beautiful red brick buildings flanking either side of the square. Those are the Pontalba Buildings, and the woman behind them had a life straight out of a Gothic novel. MicaEla Almonester, Baroness de Pontalba, was the wealthiest woman in New Orleans. In eighteen thirty-four, her own father-in-law shot her Four Times at point-blank range with dueling pistols over her fortune... and she Survived! He took his own life that same evening. She returned to New Orleans, found this square in a state of desolation, and personally oversaw its transformation... reportedly climbing ladders in men's work clothes to inspect the construction herself!

   That bronze statue of Andrew Jackson at the center? It was dedicated on February ninth, eighteen fifty-six... one of four identical castings by sculptor Clark Mills. Look at Jackson tipping his hat. Legend has it the Baroness helped finance the statue and had it placed so that Jackson faces her apartment... tipping his hat to Her every single day.

9. 9. JAX Brewery — From Beer to Boutiques

   The Shops at Jax Brewery, 600 Decatur St, New Orleans

   Take a deep breath and look at this handsome red brick building right here on Dekatur Street. Today it's full of shops and restaurants, but close your eyes for a moment and imagine... the roar of steam, the clang of iron kettles, and the rich, yeasty smell of brewing beer filling the entire French Quarter.

   This is the Jax Brewery, founded by Lawrence Fabacher in eighteen ninety as the Jackson Bohemian Brewery, named after Andrew Jackson and Jackson Square. The building itself was designed by German-born architect Dietrich Einsiedel in eighteen ninety-one, and for nearly eighty-five years, it was considered the Largest brewery in the entire South!

   Now here's what most people don't know. Fabacher was an Alsatian immigrant who arrived amid a massive wave of German settlement that transformed New Orleans' brewing landscape, peaking with over Thirty breweries by nineteen hundred. Can you imagine... thirty breweries in one city?

   When Prohibition hit in nineteen twenty, most of those breweries vanished. But not Jax. The old brewery survived by converting its operations to bottle non-alcoholic brews... grape punch, Jax Cola, and orange soda. Clever, right? Jax and Dixie were the Only New Orleans breweries to survive Prohibition.

   And here's a literary gem for you. In Tennessee Williams' nineteen forty-seven play A Streetcar Named Desire, the character Steve Hubbell requests Jax Beer for the evening's poker game in Act One, Scene One. That's how deeply this beer was woven into the fabric of the city.

   The brewery finally closed in nineteen seventy-four. But the transformation into a shopping mall didn't go smoothly. In nineteen eighty-four, during the renovation, an acetylene cutting torch sparked a Seven-Alarm fire. Old brewing tanks could be seen through burned-out walls. One man was killed and four others injured.

   Despite that tragedy, the twenty-two acre site was purchased for five point five million dollars, and developers spent another eight million to transform it into a sixty-five thousand square foot retail and entertainment complex.

   And one more thing... since twenty twenty-three, this building also houses the studios of radio station Wwoz, the heartbeat of New Orleans music. So the old brewery Still hums with life... just a different kind of brew.

10. 10. Steamboat Natchez Dock — Toulouse Street Wharf

    Steamboat Natchez, 400 Toulouse St, New Orleans

    Stop. Listen. Can you hear that? That bright, joyful shriek of steam and brass echoing across the water? That's the sound of a Calliope... a thirty-two note steam pipe organ perched high on the deck of the vessel right in front of you. The Steamboat Natchez.

    She is the Ninth boat to carry the name Natchez, and she has never... Ever... lost a steamboat race. Not once. Let that sink in.

    Now, here's where the story gets fascinating. This boat was christened on April twelfth, nineteen seventy-five, right here at Toulouse Street Wharf. But her heart is much older than that. Her powerful steam engines were built for U.S. Steel Corporation's sternwheeler Clairton back in nineteen twenty-five. That means the engines beating inside this boat are over a century old... salvaged from a vessel that once pushed steel and coal on the Kanawha River in West Virginia.

    And that copper bell you might spot on board? It was made from two hundred and fifty melted silver dollars to produce a purer, sweeter tone. The whistle itself came from a ship that sank in nineteen oh eight on the Monongahela River. This boat is a floating museum of salvaged river history!

    But what about the Name, Natchez? The first boat to bear it was a small sidewheeler built in eighteen twenty-three. Its most notable passenger was the Marquis de Lafayette, the French hero of the American Revolutionary War, in eighteen twenty-five. Then came Captain Thomas P. Leathers... nicknamed "Old Push"... a man so fierce and competitive that he would sometimes throw fatty bacon and hog fat into the engine to dramatically increase the speed of his boats. He built Seven boats called Natchez.

    His sixth was the racer in that legendary eighteen seventy race against the Robert E. Lee, from New Orleans to Saint Louis... twelve hundred miles. The Lee won by stripping down and carrying no cargo, steaming straight through fog. The Natchez carried her normal load and stopped as usual... and still arrived only six hours later. Leathers insisted until his dying day that His boat was faster.

    And here's a detail most people walk right past. Every Natchez since Leathers' first has carried the same ensign... a bale of cotton between its smokestacks. Look up. You might just spot it. A tribute to the cotton trade that once made this river the richest waterway on Earth.

    Now, that Calliope you're hearing? Its inventor, Joshua C. Stoddard, patented it in October eighteen fifty-five and originally intended it to be played in a church. Instead, it found its way onto showboats, where it could blast at over a hundred and twenty decibels... loud enough to be heard for Miles. The player wears heavy ear protection for every single performance. So the next time you hear that wild, joyful music drifting over Jackson Square... remember. It was meant for a Sunday sermon... but the Mississippi had other plans.

11. 11. Monument to the Immigrant

    Monument to the Immigrant, Woldenberg Park, New Orleans

    Take a look at the white marble figure before you, reaching out over the water like a guardian spirit watching the Mississippi. This is the Monument to the Immigrant... and it stands on ground where thousands of real lives began again.

    The sculptor, Fran-co Alessandrini, was himself an immigrant. Born in Sansepolcro, Tuscany, he came to Louisiana in the nineteen seventies and made New Orleans his home. When the Italian American Marching Club commissioned him to create this monument, he did something remarkable. He traveled back to Carrara, Italy... the same quarries where Michelangelo hand-picked marble for his Pietà and his David over five hundred years ago... to personally select the stone. Even the marble itself is an immigrant.

    Alessandrini didn't work from imagination alone. He used actual photographs of immigrants arriving in New Orleans to carve the family you see here with historical accuracy. Notice how the family faces the French Quarter... because that's exactly where most immigrants settled when they arrived. The other side, that striking ship's prow figure, faces the river, evoking Lady Liberty.

    Now here's what most people don't realize about where you're standing. Before the Civil War, the Port of New Orleans was the Second busiest immigration gateway in the entire United States, right behind New York. Between eighteen thirty-seven and eighteen sixty, over half a million people stepped off ships right here. And there was a grim reason so many chose this port... ships carrying southern cotton to Europe returned half-empty, so shipping companies offered bargain fares to fill the space. Can you imagine... your ticket to a new life, made affordable by bales of cotton?

    But passage through New Orleans was dangerous. Yellow fever and malaria struck the city ruthlessly. In eighteen fifty-three alone, an epidemic killed roughly ten percent of the entire population. Travel guides actually warned immigrants to avoid arriving between May and November.

    This monument was dedicated on March nineteenth, nineteen ninety-five. Judge Anthony Russo ended his speech with words that still echo across this riverfront... "Let US Not Forget Our Immigrants!" The inscription at the base reads simply... dedicated to the courageous men and women who left their homeland seeking freedom, opportunity, and a better life in a new country.

12. 12. Woldenberg Riverfront Park — Art on the Levee

    Woldenberg Riverfront Park, 1 Canal St, New Orleans

    Take a look around you. Sixteen acres of green lawns, brick walkways, and open sky... all stretching between the Mississippi River and the French Quarter. But just a few decades ago? None of this existed. Where you're standing right now was a wall of industrial warehouses, shipping docks, and floodwalls... completely cutting the city off from its own river.

    The transformation began in the nineteen eighties. The land was cleared, and lightweight soil was laid over the old concrete warehouse foundations to create this park. It first opened to the public in October nineteen eighty nine, just in time to reclaim the riverfront for the people of New Orleans.

    The park is named for Malcolm Woldenberg, a Canadian-born businessman who came to New Orleans in nineteen forty one. He and his partner Stephen Goldring founded Magnolia Liquor Company, which eventually became connected to the legendary Sazerac Company... yes, the one behind New Orleans' most famous cocktail. Woldenberg's foundation gave five million dollars to the Audubon Institute to make this park a reality. There's a bronze statue of him here in the park... a quiet man holding the hand of a child.

    Now, let me draw your attention to the art. That shimmering stainless steel sculpture nearby is called Ocean Song, created in nineteen ninety by New Orleans native John T. Scott... a MacArthur Genius Award winner who grew up in the Lower Ninth Ward. See those rings at the top? Scott said they represent the circle dances performed by enslaved people at Congo Square... sacred rituals where forming a circle created holy ground. It's his way of encoding the African roots of New Orleans music right into the metal.

    But the most powerful work here waits further along the path. The Holocaust Memorial, dedicated in two thousand three... nine painted aluminum panels, about eleven feet tall, created by Israeli artist Yaacov Agam. Here is what makes it extraordinary. Agam is one of the world's pioneers of kinetic art... the son of an Orthodox rabbi, raised with the Jewish commandment against graven images. So he found a way to make art that Never stands still. Walk slowly around the memorial. From one angle, you see a yellow Star of David on black... the symbol of persecution. Take a few steps, and that image dissolves into total darkness. Keep moving... six colored boxes appear, one for each million lives lost. Then chaos. Destruction. And finally... a double rainbow emerges, a universal call for unity.

    The memorial exists because of Rabbi Edward P. Cohn, who visited the New England Holocaust Memorial in Boston in nineteen ninety seven and felt New Orleans needed its own. This was at a time when American Nazi David Duke was gaining prominence in Louisiana politics! A local doctor then suggested his friend Agam for the design, and from the beginning, the artist insisted the memorial should acknowledge the victims... not the murderers.

    About a hundred and fifty Holocaust survivors settled in New Orleans after nineteen forty eight. They called themselves the New Americans... standing in as aunts and uncles for each other's children, building new lives beside this very river.