1938 Map of La Branche

About this map

The marshy lowlands along the southern shore of Lake Pontchartrain define this mid-1930s landscape, surveyed just as the Bonnet Carre Floodway was becoming a permanent feature of the river management system. The settlement of Labranche sits at the intersection of the shoreline and the Illinois Central railroad, which cuts a straight diagonal through the wetlands toward the southeast. The interior is a complex network of natural waterways like Bayou Labranche and Bayou Traverse, alongside an emerging system of straight drainage channels including the Cross Bayou Canal and various numbered canals. To the east, the West Boundary of Kenner Protection Levee marks the edge of the Jefferson Parish line, illustrating the transition from the wilder bayous of St. Charles Parish toward the protected lands near the city.