i know we make everything out of court today, but that and we didn't. this was kind of new. one thing worth noting is that in world war ii, we were rationed. justr believed that if you encouraged people to act correctly, they would rationed food themselves. >> watch american artifacts today at six ago p.m. eastern on american history tv -- 6:00 p.m. eastern on american history tv. this weekend, we are featuring cityrleans, where c-span's towards the staff were silly traveled to see its storic site. the city was founded by the french in 1718. it became united states territory and nine -- 1803 when napoleon sold the land in the louisiana purchase. learn more about new orleans all weekend here on american history tv. while in new orleans, we took a driving tour of the city with

an author and a two-lane professor, richard. >> thank you so much for showing us around new orleans today. you are not from here originally. >> no. born in brooklyn, new york. while growing up, one of my early childhood readers was a book about abraham lincoln. i was five years old. this was 1971. in that book, i learned that lincoln had come down this long river to this exotic city of the other end. they were reforming -- referring to the mississippi and new orleans. that planted the seed for a lifelong fascination for new orleans and louisiana in the mississippi river, that eventually became my life dedication. >> you're going to drive us all around the city. we're starting out in a place that maybe you typically don't think of when you think of new orleans.

this doesn't look like the stereotypical picture you see of the city. where are we? is at thenic imagery narrow streets of the french quarter, the cast-iron balconies, the old buildings. this is city park over here. this is beautiful by you say john -- bayou st. john. you almost can't overstate its importance in the history and geography of the city, because it directly influenced why our founder established new orleans here exactly 300 years ago. the year 2018 is a tie centennial of new orleans. but i thought we would do is look around here and follow the bayou into the city and talk about the role it played and how it led to the founding of new orleans.

>> let's do it. >> let's talk about basic geography here. us, to the north is a tidal lagoon, known as blake punch train -- lake pontchetrain. for the tribes in precolonial times and the french colonials who started arriving here in the --80's and 6099, was how to 1699, was how to connect the gulf of mexico and the mississippi to the whole north american land on the other. this little bayou allows french theorers to circumvent mouth of the mississippi river lakenstead, come through

pontchetrain and up this little bayo disembark and take a two mile portage route to the mississippi river. you could get there without going up the mississippi river. new orleans was established at that point and that is today's french quarter. as we come up this overpass, you will see bayou st. john. if you draw a line from this water body in the foreground to justice to the left of the high-rises there, that marks the little two-mile trail. it was going through swap, but this particular route was just a couple of feet above the swamplands, and that made a dry portage. st. johning over bayou right now and we will be following it more closely here, making a right. -- after the

founding of the city, this was an early plantation region here. small truck farms and dairies as well as some larger commodity plantations. we have a couple of examples of old colonial era plantation houses here. a 1788ment, we will see asation house that is known the old spanish customs house, which also embodies that great look -- it's right over here. this is one of my favorite streets in the city. grand route st. john. 1788, all spanish customs houses. notice the double pitch tip roof. the center chimneys. buildings ofrent that size and massing with

various setbacks. this burst throughout the french quarter. roughly speaking, that is a early french colonial new orleans would have looked like. we are on that slightly elevated ridge that allowed for for passage between bayou st. john and the french quarter. you would have had swamps to your left and right, but right here would have been a very narrow foot road that allowed people to get to the river without going up the river. new orleans would be located in a different place, probably with a different name, if it weren't for the almost imperceptible rate you are on right now. -- rigid you are on right now. ridge you are on right now. the water knows. i like to make this point, that in studying the topography of

the city, i'm often asked, what topographic elevation? that is exactly the point. in a relatively flat environment, the little elevation you have becomes that much more valuable. just a few feet of elevation can spell the difference between a neighborhood being established in the napoleonic age versus the jazz age, versus the space-age. here. how we curve in new orleans, whenever you see an old road that curves, that is probably following a topographic ridge through the swamps. we are continuing along, and we rear block of the colbert. it is a french term that means in the suburb. subdivision, appendage into

the original study. the original city is the french quarter and it was surrounded by a series of foburgs developed after the louisiana purchase as the population started to them. it is best known for its population of free people of color, which was more more inial here and had louisiana and new orleans than anywhere else in antebellum north america. you will notice the shackles they going from the anchor. this is a charge from 1841. almost a spanish look to the thech, even know it has same architect at st. louis cathedral. this almost, unquestionably is the heart of the neighborhood. the catholic church is still active.

ofe are some great examples 1840's, 1830's cottages. this neighbooo today is changing. it's gentrifying. older, deeply rooted native population here that is more likely to be african-american and more likely to describe itself as creole. the architecture and proximity to the french quarter, the higher ground it is on, makes it attractive to many other folks for cultural and historical and civic reasons. we're going to cross the street. now, head into the quieter more residential french quarter. >> we are starting to see that wrought iron, a lot of the architecture that is typically iconic when you think of new orleans. we are at bourbon street.

>> we are at the quite end of bourbon street. bourbon street is 14 blocks long. famous infamous bourbon street is really only abouthe first eight or so blocks. the rest of it is a quiet residential neighborhood, almost indistinguishable from the other lower streets of the french quarter. >> what do you think people get wrong when i think about new orleans? with initially think of bourbon street, are they missing out on something else? who sees allpe impressions of new orleans as being interesting indicators of people's impressions. i see every person exploring the city and living in the city as having a head full of impressions and expectations. i see that as all legitimate and interesting. one of my books is on the

history of bourbon street. it took me a while to make peace with what i just said. piece i did make. >> what changed for you? phenomenoning this of bouon street today, i came to realize that tourism and visitation and everything that goes on on bourbon street has deep historic precedents. in and of itself, is a legitimate cultural expression. if youd mention that were here 200 years ago, there was an economy catering to escapism and hedonism and drinking. bourbon street is the modern day manifestation, the clever repackaging of those historical realities. when you think of it that way, suddenly, you are a little bit less likely to criticize those things. we're coming down saint and

street, and ann this will get us to the edge of one of the most perfectly preserved urban plazas in the nation. it's called jackson square. the spanish, who were here for 35 years ago collett the plaza. -- call it the plaza. you see to spectacular circa 1850 apartments. then, you will see the st. louis cathedral, and the city hall during spanish colonial times, and the main plaza. well preserved from about 1850 on. there's symmetrical. filled with streetlife, artists, musicians, busters, pedestrians. it is the absolute historic heart of the city. everyone knows and everyone

loves it. we are about to cross into a neighborhood cald water, which has really been at the forefront of the post-katrina gentrification of new orleans. >> you mentioned post-katrina, what was his neighborhood before katrina? >> more african-americans, more native, local folks, more families, or children in the streets, more renters. after katrina, many of those renter families got jostled out because of the whole disruption to the life here. >> reliving her then? >> -- were you living here/ yes, we witnessed the entire week and day. it was incredibly intense. we were euphoric that evening

that we had survived and didn't realize what was going on because we were inside a dark house and cut off from the rest of the world. we didn't realize of the levees had breached. we were on higher ground so it took a while for the waters to reach us. only the next day, biking around, surveying what happened, did i start to surmise. me -- dawnto don on on me that this was not a disaster, this is a full blown catastrophe. each day was quite literally 10 times worse than the previous one. by the time we got out on friday, the conditions were apocalyptic. you are in the lower ninth ward here. this was the hardest hit of all the katrina affected areas in louisiana and mississippi. this was the hardest hit because it had the misfortune of being next to the two most seve

flood wall breaches. it was a working-class neighborhood, it has had a surprising level of homeownership, about 95% african-american. rate ofhe lowest return any katrina affected neighborhood because of the severity, the social vulnerability of the pre-existing population, coupled with the extreme nature of the damage done. >> you are cut off from media, you started biking around, how did you feel? did you think there would be such a come back? >> no. when we got out, finally that 2005, i willr 2, never forget the moment. we figured out the radio rumors that you could get out of the city by going over the bridge to the west bank and basically driving around the flood.

the crest of the bridge, it was early in the morning and i will never forget the view. it look like a beautiful day, except that they were plumes of smoke rising everywhere. if you look closer, you would have seen a sheen of water that the city was drowning in. at that moment, i never would orleansssed that new would have recovered to the degree that it did. you can't say that without also looking around you at this hardest hit area and realizing that here, the recovery has barely occurred. against overly sisi encapsulations of new orleans in the post-katrina era. there have been many successes and people should tell the stories, but you also have an obligation to tell why that

steps to know where is still there. >> we have seen a lot of new orleans to see today. if there was one thing you really wanted people to know about your adopted city, what would it be? >> you can't know the rest of the nation unless you know new orleans. >> why is that? >> because in many way, it is the essence of the nation, even as it is also the exception of the nation. soft, southern underbelly of the north american continent. it's where the kirby and an south atlantic -- caribbean, and south atlantic, and mediterrann, and latin world could mix and with this vast land of what proved to be the wealthiest valley on earth, the mississippi valley. this vast river flowing, connecting all these diverse cultures, have the there not be , a notableng city

location pivoting those two together? it was a mostly catholic city and a mostly protestant nation. it was a mostly roman civil law society in a mostly english common law nation. it was a french long-lost surveying regin a township and range surveying nation. it was a west indian architecture city and the mostly neoclassical greek revival nation. you have all these different differentiations, but that eventually assimilated and hybridized and affected the rest of the nation in the form of the music and the food as well as the architecture. that is why. >> thank you so much for showing us around today. >> you're staff cities towards

travel to new orleans to learn about its rich htory. about new orleans and other stops on our tour at c-span/cities tour. you are watching american history tv all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. world war ii triple ace fighter pilots served to combat tours in europe and flew 116 missions in his 51 mustang. next on american history tv, mr. anderson talks about how he became a military pilot and recounted his combat experience is in kill or be killed experiences. the smithsonian is he him hosted this hour-long event. museum hosted this hour-long event. chris: good evening. i'm chris brown, the pity and deputy director here at the museum and it is my pleasure to welcome you to the 2018 charles a lindbergh