Crescent City Connection In New Orleans Louisiana

Title

Crescent City Connection In New Orleans Louisiana

Artist

Michael Hoard

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

The Crescent City Connection (CCC), formerly the Greater New Orleans Bridge (GNO), refers to twin cantilever bridges that carry U.S. Route 90 Business over the Mississippi River in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. They are tied as the fifth-longest cantilever bridges in the world. Each span carries four general-use automobile lanes; additionally the westbound span has two reversible HOV lanes across the river.
It is the farthest downstream bridge on the Mississippi River. It is also the widest and most heavily-traveled bridge on the lower Mississippi; the only other comparable bridges on the Mississippi are in the St. Louis Area, those being the Poplar Street Bridge, the Jefferson Barracks Bridge, and the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge, which is under construction.
What later became known as the Crescent City Connection was the second bridge to span the Mississippi south of Baton Rouge after the Huey P. Long Bridge a few miles up river from the city, and the first bridge across the river in New Orleans itself.
The Mississippi River Bridge Authority, known since 1989 as the Crescent City Connection Division (CCCD), began construction of the first span in November 1954, which opened in April 1958 as the Greater New Orleans Bridge. At its opening, the bridge was the longest cantilever bridge in the world, although in terms of main span length it was third after the Forth Bridge and the Quebec Bridge. It carried two lanes of traffic in each direction, and spurred growth in the suburban area known as the West Bank (for its location on the western bank of the river; it is geographically southeast of New Orleans). Construction of the second span began in March 1981. Despite promises that it would be ready for the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition, it did not open to traffic until September 1988. The second span was originally designated as the Greater New Orleans Bridge No. 2. Both bridges were designed by Modjeski & Masters, Inc.. As soon as the new span was opened, the old span was temporarily closed in phases to replace the asphalt-on-steel deck with concrete. All the exits and entrances to the bridge were replaced as well.
After completion of the second span, a public contest was held in 1989 to rename the bridges, which was won by Jennifer Grodsky of St. Clement of Rome School in Metairie, Louisiana, on March 17.[2] The name was selected over the second place finisher, the Greater New Orleans Superspan, as the name for the spans.[2] Other names voted on for the naming of the spans included: the Crescent City Twins, the Delta Twins, the Crescent City Bridge, the New Orleans Metro Span, the Crescent City Gateway, the Crescent City Twin Span, the Crescent City River Bridge, The Big Easy and the Li'l Easy, the Jazz City Bridge, the Big East Twin Spans, The Pelican Bridge, the Fleur-de-Lis, the Greater Mississippi River Bridge, the Unity Bridge, the Mississippi River Twins, The Friendship Connection, The Pelican Pride, the Riverview Bridge, the Creole Crossing, the Jazz Gate Bridge, the Greater New Orleans Twin Bridges, and the Crescent Bend Bridge.[3]
Following this contest, the Louisiana Legislature officially designated the bridges as the Crescent City Connection. It is maintained and policed by the CCCD, a special division of the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development which since 1989 has controlled all Mississippi River crossings in Orleans, Jefferson, and St. Bernard Parishes. A separate police agency, commonly nicknamed the "Bridge Police", is required because of the high traffic volume and the fact that the two spans briefly cross into Jefferson Parish and the city of Gretna; therefore, it could not be policed solely by the New Orleans Police Department. In spite of the decades past since the renaming of the bridges, local residents commonly refer to the bridge as "The GNO" where the proper name of "Crescent City Connection" is used mainly in media.
Due to the Mississippi River's winding course through the New Orleans area (the river is flowing north at the place where the two bridges cross), the eastbound span actually carries Business US 90 West, while the westbound span carries Business US 90 East. The Crescent City Connection is the fifth most traveled toll bridge in the United States, with annual traffic exceeding 63 million vehicles[4] (approximately 180,000 daily).
The bridge is the center piece of the Crescent Connection Road Race (CCRR)[5] or Bridge Race as it is locally known, an annual event held on the first Saturday in September following Labor Day. The bridge remains open to vehicular traffic during the race, which only uses the two HOV lanes. The CCRR was originally started as a fundraiser for the bridge's decorative lights. These lights line the top profile lines of both bridges; 64 lights along each string for a total 256 lights.
As Hurricane Katrina approached the city in August 2005, the CCCD halted toll collections on August 26 to aid in speed of evacuation of the Metro area. Two overhead signs were blown down on the older span, but no other damage occurred to either bridge. After the storm passed, much of the east bank of New Orleans flooded severely (see Effect of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans). With all other major and minor highways out of town flooded in both directions, the CCC was the only open highway into or out of the east bank of Orleans Parish. (One other route, Leake Avenue/Old River Road, a small road along the Mississippi River levee, was initially blocked by debris but was cleared by local volunteer work). Two days after the storm passed, the Gretna police setup a roadblock on the bridge, refusing passage to evacuees. A lawsuit alleges that the bridge was closed due to racism against the largely African-American evacuees, while the city maintains that they had no facilities or manpower to serve the evacuees.[6]
In the initial weeks following the storm, only emergency personnel and contractors were permitted to use the bridge. The bridge reopened to traffic in mid-September as decreasing water levels on the East Bank of Orleans Parish allowed Interstate 10 to reopen and residents to return, but then was temporarily closed to regular traffic again when another evacuation was declared due to Hurricane Rita, with the bridge again reopening in late September. Toll collection resumed on October 10, 2005 after a six-week suspension, as the revenue was needed to maintain operations.[1] Long lines at the toll booth lanes during non-rush times became common, due to a shortage of toll collectors and electronic toll tags, combined with heavy usage of the bridge due to the many New Orleanians staying with friends and relatives on the Westbank while they worked on gutting and repairing their flooded Eastbank homes
.The spans are a recent favorite of movie production crews. The HOV lanes are frequently used for filming, as they are not heavily used, and are separated from normal traffic by barrier walls. Both spans were briefly closed on April 9, 2006 to allow filming with stunts and pyrotechnics for the Denzel Washington film D�j� Vu, released in the US on November 22, 2006. The spans also served as the anchor for the background in most outdoor scenes in the film A Love Song for Bobby Long.
The bridge since operation has collected tolls, a public voting against collecting tolls was conducted and because of ballots cast and the margin so close, a second voting was took place and won by the majority vote....the bridge has been toll free and toll booths removed from there location on the west bank of the Mississippi River. This photo was the first photo I took with my new Nikon 820 at the site is a public park, and took this photo. At the public sitting are there are swings erected which you can watch the the boat traffic head up stream and down stream.

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January 12th, 2014

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