them to circumvent the muddy mississippi river and instead come through pontcharttrain through bayou st. johnippi river. you can get to the mississippi river with outgoing up -- without going up the mississippi. this overpass, you will see bayou st. john. if you draw a line from this body to the high-rises, that marks that two-mile portage trail. it was going through swamp, but this particular route was just a couple feet above the swamp land, and that made it a dry terrestrial portage. we are going along bayou st. john, and we are going to follow it more closely here, making a right. this was an early plantation region. small truck farms and dairy them as well as larger commodity plantations. we have example of older colonial era plantation houses here. in a moment we will see a 1788 plantation house that is known as the old spanish customs house, which also embodies that great look of -- it's right over here. this is one of my favorite streets in the city, grant route st. john. 1788, old spanish customs house. notice the double pitched roof, the raised construction, the center chimney, the