Page 353 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - USA

NE W ORLEANS , L OUISIANA  351

because this is where Andrew Williams’ A Streetcar Named o City Park
Higgins designed and built the Desire, it travels 6.5 miles
amphibious landing craft that (10.5 km) from Canal Street to @ 45, 46, 48, 87, 90. New Orleans
Eisenhower considered essential Carrollton Avenue. Along the Museum of Art: 1 Collins Diboll Circle.
for the Allies’ victory. way it passes many famous Tel (504) 658-4100. Open 10am–6pm
landmarks. The most prominent Tue–Thu, 10am–9pm Fri, 10am–5pm
Sat, 11am–5pm Sun. Closed public
are Lee Circle with its memorial hols. & 7 ∑ noma.org
to Confederate general Robert
E. Lee, the Gothic Revival Christ The fifth largest urban park in the
Church, Touro Synagogue, US, the 1,500-acre (607-ha) City
the Latter Public Library, and Park is a New Orleans institution,
Loyola and Tulane Universities. where visitors can relax and enjoy
Just off St. Charles Avenue is the semitropical Louisiana weather.
one of the loveliest urban The New Orleans Botanical
parks in the country. The Gardens and the prestigious
340-acre (137-ha) Audubon New Orleans Museum of Art share
Park was originally the sugar this space with moss-draped live
plantation of Jean Etienne Boré, oaks, lagoons for boating and
who developed the commercially fishing, and the championship
successful sugar granulation Bayou Oaks Golf Course.
St. Charles Avenue Streetcar, a New process. It was also the location Housed in an impressive
Orleans landmark of the 1884 World Exposition. Beaux Arts building, the museum
The Audubon Zoo occupies has an astonishingly varied
i Garden District 58 acres (23 ha) of the park’s collection. Originally the Delgado
grounds. Beautifully landscaped, Museum of Art, it was founded
Between Jackson & Louisiana Aves, &
St. Charles Ave & Magazine St. the zoo opened in 1938 but in 1910 when Isaac Delgado, a
v St. Charles. @ 11, 14, 27. was completely redesigned in millionaire bachelor, donated
the 1980s. Today, the animals the original $150,000 to
When the Americans arrived in live in open paddocks that construct an art museum in City
New Orleans after the Louisiana replicate their natural habitats. Park. In 1971 it was renamed the
Purchase in 1803, they settled The Louisana Swamp, where New Orleans Museum of Art in
upriver from the French Quarter. white alligators bask along the deference to some of its newer
This area is referred to as the banks or float in the muddy benefactors. The New Orleans
Garden District because of the lagoon, is one of the most Botanical Garden was created in
lush gardens planted with engaging exhibits. the 1930s. Then, it was primarily
magnolia, camellia, azalea, and a rose garden, but today
jasmine. A residential neighbor- there are more than 2,000
hood, it is filled with large varieties of plants from
mansions built by wealthy city around the world organized
planters and merchants. Some as themed gardens.
of the grand residences here are High lights include the
the Robinson House and Colonel Conservancy of Two
Short’s Villa, which has a handsome Sisters, the Butterfly Walk,
cast-iron cornstalk fence. the Lord and Taylor Rose
For a romantic New Orleans Garden, and the Historic
experience, take a ride on the Train Garden with minia-
slow-moving St. Charles ture trains and streetcars
Avenue Streetcar to uptown moving through a tiny
New Orleans. The last of the Evocative statue in the City Park’s New Orleans New Orleans made of
sort that featured in Tennessee Botanical Gardens plant materials.
Mardi Gras
Spanning across several days and culminating on the day before
Ash Wednesday – Mardi Gras – Carnival festivities in New Orleans are
celebrated with lavish masked balls, presented by groups of citizens
known as “Krewes.” Although most balls are private, many Krewes also
put on parades, with ornate costumes and colorful floats. Many Carnival
traditions began with the Krewe of Rex. The symbolic purple, green, and
gold colors used for masks, banners, and other decorations are derived
from the original costume worn by Rex, the King of Mardi Gras, in the
1872 parade. The tradition of throwing souvenir doubloons (coins),
Colorful costume for one of the many beads, and dolls from the floats to the crowds began in 1881.
Mardi Gras parades
Oak Alley Plantation in Vacherie, Louisiana

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