The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ involvement in Louisiana dates back to 1803 when an Army engineer was sent to the newly acquired city of New Orleans to study its defenses. The Corps’ early work in the area was of a military nature, but soon expanded to include navigation and flood control.

New Orleans District’s jurisdiction covers 30,000 square miles of south central and coastal Louisiana. The district plans, designs, constructs and operates navigation, flood control, hurricane protection, and coastal restoration projects. We maintain more than 2,800 miles of navigable waterways and operate twelve navigation locks, helping to make the ports of south Louisiana number one in the nation in total tonnage.

The Corps has built 950 miles of levees and floodwalls, and six major flood control structures.

One important aspect of the New Orleans District program is its historic preservation and cultural resources management program. The Corps protects a great variety of prehistoric and historic sites to meet the requirements of the National Historic Preservation Act.

The New Orleans District recognizes its responsibilities to communicate the results of its numerous studies to the public.

This booklet inaugurates our series of popular publications. The booklet was prepared in conjunction with the District’s 45-foot-deep, Baton Rouge-to-the-Gulf, Deep Draft Navigation Channel Project.

This 35 page booklet may be requested in print form or downloadedas a 2 MB Adobe PDF file.