Canal Street: The Widest Boulevard and the Great Divide

Canal Street: The Widest Boulevard and the Great Divide

Canal Street is the spine of New Orleans. At 171 feet wide, it is one of the widest boulevards in North America, and for more than two centuries it has served as the dividing line between the old Creole city and the American sector. Everything in New Orleans is oriented around Canal—streets change names when they cross it, neighborhoods shift character, and the entire city seems to pivot on its neutral ground.

The Canal That Never Was

Despite its name, there was never actually a canal on Canal Street. The street was named for a proposed waterway that would have connected the Mississippi River to Bayou St. John and Lake Pontchartrain. The canal was planned in the late 1700s but never built. The wide right-of-way that had been set aside for it became the boulevard instead, and the name stuck—a ghost of an idea that never materialized.

The Neutral Ground

Canal Street gave New Orleans one of its most distinctive terms. In the early 1800s, when Anglo-Americans began flooding into the city after the Louisiana Purchase, tensions between the Creoles and the newcomers were fierce. Canal Street became the unofficial border between the two cultures. The wide median became known as the "neutral ground"—a no-man's land between two worlds. To this day, New Orleanians call every median a neutral ground, whether it is on Canal Street or a tiny residential block in Gentilly.

The Neighborhoods

Canal Street stretches from the Mississippi River all the way to the cemeteries at City Park Avenue, passing through some of the most varied terrain in the city. It begins at the foot of the Quarter, runs through the CBD and the edge of the Warehouse District, crosses Claiborne Avenue into Mid-City, and terminates near the Greenwood and Metairie cemeteries. Along the way it connects the French Quarter, the Central Business District, Tremé, Mid-City, and Lakeview—each with its own distinct personality.

Key Landmarks

The Saenger Theatre at 1111 Canal is one of the great movie palaces of the South, built in 1927 and gloriously restored after Katrina. The Roosevelt Hotel, now the Waldorf Astoria, has anchored the 100 block since 1893 and is home to the legendary Sazerac Bar. The Joy Theater, Palace Café, and Rubenstein's building all line the blocks near the river. Farther up, the streetcar line runs the length of Canal, connecting riders to the cemeteries and City Park. And at the river end, the Canal Street Ferry terminal has been shuttling people to Algiers Point for generations.