Pioneering Flood Control in the Mississippi in 1712, a Prelude to New Orleans' Founding

In 1712, a young engineer, Blond de la Tour 👷, was handed the epic task of planning a levee system for a future town that, six years later, evolved into New Orleans. 🏰 Blond, as French as a baguette, relied on the ideas of Vauban, a brilliant military engineer whose fortifications influenced French cities and urban development across the Old and New Worlds.

Blond de la Tour kicked off the project with a levee to tame the wild Mississippi floods 🌊, allowing the town to finally start putting down some roots. This marked the birth of the first-ever flood control public works project in the soon-to-be United States.

Fast forward to 1727, and the French had crafted a levee stretching over a mile, standing 3 to 4 feet tall, and threw in some snazzy drainage ditches for good measure. As time rolled on, they decided the levees needed a growth spurt to keep those flood flows in check, resulting in taller and broader flood-fighting structures.

Blond de la Tour succumbed to yellow fever in October 1724, having contributed to town plans for Nouveau Biloxi and Fort Conde de la Mobile, located at the present site of the city. Additionally, he worked on the fort at La Balise, near the mouth of the Mississippi River, and contributed to the town plan for Nouvelle Orleans.

It was only in 1879 that Congress established the Mississippi River Commission, tasked with preventing the frequent destructive floods in the Mississippi River Valley. Following another massive flood 💦 in 1882, which destroyed a partially restored levee line, Congress directly entrusted the responsibility for construction to the Army Corps of Engineers 🎖️. Since the founding of New Orleans, there has been an ongoing battle to prevent flooding damage.

The legacy of Blond de la Tour and the ongoing battle against flooding in the Mississippi River Valley serve as a testament to human resilience and adaptability. In the present era, armed with cutting-edge asset and work management technology, towns and utilities are better equipped than ever to address and manage the complex challenges posed by floods.