The Big Easy, Part 2
Part 2 of my New Orleans journey highlights one of New Orleans oldest attractions, the French Quarter, and one of the newest, the National World War II Museum. Both are “can’t miss” experiences when visiting New Orleans.
The National World War II Museum
The National World War II Museum complex sits on the northern edge of the Warehouse District between the Garden District and the Central Business District, straddling Andrew Higgins Drive. The museum is located in New Orleans because of a man named Andrew Higgins, of whom General Eisenhower once said “Andrew Higgins … is the man who won the war for us. … If Higgins had not designed and built those LCVPs (Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel), we never could have landed over an open beach. The whole strategy of the war would have been different.” Higgins Industries, located in seven plants scattered around New Orleans, built most of the US Navy during WW II. In September of 1943 the American Navy totaled 14,072 ships of one kind or another, 92% of those were designed by Higgins Industries and 8,865 were built in New Orleans. The main entrance (left) is the original site of the museum on the east side of the street. Across the street (right) is the newer part of the complex. Four buildings will eventually surround an inner courtyard, only three are complete.
The original museum is a cavernous space with airplanes suspended from the ceiling and a replica of a train station along the east wall. This picture was taken from a third floor observation post. You can see the train station on the lower right.
After paying admission you are given a “dog tag” and directed onto the train for an orientation. The large plane is a C-47, a cargo workhorse during the war. The smaller plane is British Spitfire, flown by both Americans and British, critical to the Allies’ mastery of the skies in the European theater. On the floor to the left is a LCVP, the landing craft designed by Higgins that allowed the Allies to land troops directly on beaches. A tour group has just come in the front door and they are being directed to board the train (above right). Once on the train, you touch your “dog tag” to the video screen in front of you and find the name and biography of the person you were assigned. Throughout the museum these screens appear and you can tap your dog tag on the screen and hear your individual’s thoughts on the war. My guy was Ernie Pyle. Very cool!
Leaving this building I cross the street and enter the first building on the right, Campaigns of Courage. Only the first floor is completed, the Road to Berlin. It tells the story of the war in the European theater. The second floor when completed will tell the story of the Asian theater. I can’t stress enough how impressed I was with this experience. It was not a collection of objects, but rather a multi-media experience that seeks to preserve a feeling as one took a chronological trip from the war’s beginning to the end. Stepping through a door, the wall to the left has giant portraits of the main leaders during WWII.
As one walks through, video and audio tells the story of the war, often told be actual participants via the dog tag, supported by displays. I can’t begin to capture the feeling, but here are some of the settings.
The museum memorializes a story told by the participants themselves with original film and audio in a quiet, powerful manner. The result is a thoughtful and emotional journey, punctuated at the end by a quote from General Eisenhower.
I exit this building and cross the courtyard to the US Freedom Pavilion: The Boeing Center.
This is a four story tall structure that is completely open on the interior. There are two levels of planes hanging from the ceiling. This view is from a fourth story catwalk looking down.
The catwalk is lined with displays of actual flight jackets worn during the war. From left to right are jackets worn by Lt. Vernon Brown (Philippines), radio operator and waist gunner Lloyd G. Porter, Jr. (Mediterranean theater), 1st Lt. Herbert Schwarz (Burma), air crewman Clyde Baptist (England), 1st Lt. Zollie Nichols (India/China), and flight engineer Jacob Manguno (India/China).
On the top level of planes the largest is so big that I couldn’t get all of it in a picture. This is a B-17 nick-named “My Gal Sal” by its crew. It was part of one of the first convoys to Great Britain but crashed in Greenland due to bad weather on its first flight in June 1942. All of the crew survived 10 days before being rescued. The plane remained encased in the snow and ice until it was salvaged by volunteers and restored in 1995.
The next picture was taken from the third floor catwalk and shows the lower tier of planes. That’s the bottom of “My Gal Sal” in the upper left of the picture.
“Bunnie” is one of the P-51 Mustang fighters which became the Allied workhorse in the sky beginning in 1943. The protection provided by the Mustang allowed the great Allied bombing raids over Germany to be a success.
This shot from the second floor balcony shows both the third and fourth floor catwalks as well as the floor displays.
The view out of the second floor window looks east out the courtyard to the city beyond. The building on the right is the Solomon Victory Theater Complex which contains a movie theater and restaurants. Unfortunately, the movie had just started so I missed it. Still, a very satisfying experience!
I found this description hard to write because, unlike most museums in my experience, this one was not a collection of “things” to be saved for the ages. Instead it strives to memorialize an experience for future generations. I leave the National World War II Museum incredibly impressed and am able to give it an enthusiastic “thumbs up! If you’re in New Orleans definitely add it to your agenda. I then turn to my last major adventure in New Orleans, also an experience, a visit to one of the holy grails of tourism, the French Quarter of New Orleans.
French Quarter
When New Orleans was founded in 1716 by the French the town was laid out on three sides of a public square, which fronted on the Mississippi River. While the French built most of the Quarter, great fires in 1788 and 1794 destroyed much of the early French construction and so the Quarter that we see today was mainly built by the Spanish, who replaced the wooden French buildings that had peaked roofs with stucco buildings that have flat tile roofs. The buildings were also required to sit shoulder to shoulder with no space in between as they front the street in order to create potential fire breaks. Thus the current situation with very narrow streets (by modern standards) and all buildings rising from the sidewalk. Occasionally one can see through a narrow archway and realize that there is usually some kind of courtyard in the middle of each block. This allowed air to reach the inner rooms. A day spent in the French Quarter is a fascinating experience. I deliberately planned to go in the morning so that not only would the temperature be cooler but the crowds less intense. There is a lot crowded into a section of the city rectangular in nature that is six blocks wide and twelve blocks long. Jackson Square is the start of my exploration as I get off the streetcar that runs along the river and look north.
The line of carriages in the foreground are waiting to take tourists on tours of the quarter. On the far north side of the square are the three buildings that formed the center of colonial power in New Orleans. On the left side of the cathedral is the Cabildo, built in 1795 to serve as the seat of the Spanish government in Louisiana (and site of the signing of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803). Anchoring the center is the St. Louis Cathedral (founded in 1718, current building completed in 1850.) On the left is the Presbytere (began in 1791, completed in 1813), designed to match the Cabildo and proposed to be used as housing for church officials. Instead the building was rented to the local government and used as a courthouse until 1911, when both the Cabildo and the Presbytere became part of the Louisiana State Museum. The trio of buildings front a large paved promenade before the landscaped park that forms the heart of Jackson Square.
To the left and right of the square are the Pontalba Buildings, block long four-story buildings constructed between 1849 and 1851. The ground floor houses shops and restaurants, the top three floors are apartments.
Across from the square from the church is the riverfront, which can’t be seen because a levee was long ago raised to help control flooding. Decatur Street runs along the south side of the square and it is lined with carriages for hire. In addition to the ever present tour bus, one can rent a carriage, join a Segway tour of the quarter, or hire a pedi-cab, not a bad idea for navigating narrow streets jammed with traffic and people.
I’ve shown you the view looking out from around the square but by far the more fascinating views are looking in towards the square. The sidewalks around the square are jammed with musicians, fortune tellers and artists. It’s a lot to take in!
Just southeast of the square is the French Market, a mammoth covered pavilion that stretches for six blocks combining a Farmer’s Market and a giant Flea Market.
Completing my exploration of the area around Jackson Square I turn my attention north to the neighborhoods of the French Quarter. Here is the famous Bourbon Street, Royal Street, and others crammed with bars, restaurants, boutique, shops, etc., on the first floor and apartments above. You’ll note that the streets are very narrow, virtually all one-way streets with parking allowed on just one side. Even with that, there is barely room for a vehicle to pass. This is definitely walking territory! Y general impression is that the farther north of Jackson Square you go, the somewhat “trashier” the atmosphere becomes. Bourbon Street leans towards the “trashy” side, not in the sense that it is dirty but rather the classy boutiques have given way to the souvenir shops and less than elegant bars and restaurants. Let’s walk the French Quarter, starting with Bourbon Street and working our way down towards Jackson Square.
The views above were all taken looking east or south because of the position of the sun. In the few pictures that I took looking west you can see the tall buildings of the Central Business District to the west.
Of course, with all this activity there has to be a police presence. Towering over Royal Street is the massive 8th District Police Station.
The imposing classic building houses a very modern police force equipped to navigate the narrow streets of the French Quarter (yes those two guys in the middle picture are police officers!
I pass by one of those rare openings to the inner courtyards that like in the middle of these blocks of colonial structures.
Pat O’Brien’s is the famous New Orleans bar where the drink “the Hurricane” was created back during World War II to take advantage of a surplus of rum. Here’s Pat O’Brien’s by day (left) and Pat O’Brien’s by night (right). Oops, what happens at night in New Orleans stays in New Orleans…!
Next up: The road resumes as we head to Acadiana
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