SOUTHERN PACIFIC LINES 7 
in 1727, was 900 feet long; eventually, as levees were extended, the 
city developed in a wide, deep saucer, out of which no drainage could 
flow. Throughout its history, therefore, it has had to contend with 
flood overflows, rain water, seepage, and sewage removal. Now, 
however, pumps with a capacity of 7,000,000,000 gallons a day lift 
surplus water into Bayou Bienvenue aiid Lake Pontchartrain. At 
times of heavy downpours the volume of water to be handled is very 
great,* but it is claimed that the present pumping system can dispose 
of a rainfall of 14 inches in 24 hours. The annual precipitation is 
57 inches. The sewage is pumped to an outlet down the river, 20 
feet below mean water level. Surface water and seepage are collected 
in large canals, and by this means the general ground-water level has 
been so greatly lowered that cellars are practicable and graves can be 
dug where formerly all interments were made in tombs.” 
In these days of large buildings it has been difficult to obtain stable 
foundations, but by the use of many wooden piles, in some places 80 
feet long, office buildings and hotels of considerable height have been 
erected.> One notable structure is the auditorium, which has a seating 
capacity of 12,000 and is used for the great balls of the Mardi Gras 
estiv 
There are four great institutions of learning in New Orleans: 
Tulane University (formerly the University of Louisiana), the H. 
Sophie Newcomb Memorial College (the women’s department of 
Tulane University), Loyola University, and the Isaac Delgado Cen- 
tral Trades School. There are many parks, libraries, churches, and 
clubs. About two-thirds of the population are native whites. The 
city water supply, of about 50,000,000 gallons a day, is pumped from 
the river, and plans have been developed to double this amount; the 
water is purified by treatment, so that its quality is satisfactory. 
New Orleans once had a high death rate, but this has been reduced 
by sanitary measures to 12% per 1,000 for the resident population, 
according to local records. The divided scourges of yellow fever and 
bubonic plague have been eliminated, and malaria has been made 
* One night in April, 1927, a fall of 13 
inches of rain ca h an inunda- 
tion that the levees had to be opened 
at Poydras, 15 miles below the city, to 
let out the flood waters, an expedient 
that cost the city $5,000,000 for dam- 
a spillway 35 miles above 
the city serves to divert water into Lake 
Pontchartrain in times of river flood. 
5In building most of the railroad 
embankments a great canal was first 
excavated to remove mud and then 
filled with sand. For foundations in 
the lower part of the city 30 feet or 
more of silt is removed to a layer of 
long-buried cypress stumps, through 
which closely spaced piling is driven to 
form a mesh which by friction will sus- 
tain heavy buildings. One high build- 
ing with a foundation of this character 
has settled a few inches, but the subsi- 
dence has been so uniform that there 
is no rupturing. In some places even 
the lowering of water level by drainage 
has resulted in the decay of wooden 
substructures with consequent settling 
of buildings. 
