12 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES 
exclusive of the Isle of Orleans, was defined as the center of the Mis- 
sissippi River. Spain, fearing that the settlements to the north would 
interfere with the interests of her possessions to the east, endeavored to 
defeat progress by prohibiting access to the mouth of the river. In 
1800, in the secret treaty of San Ildefonso, Spain returned to France 
the area west of the Mississippi which she had acquired in 1762, but 
the actual transfer of authority was postponed for three years. On 
April 30, 1803, Napoleon ceded this territory to the United States for 
the sum of 60,000,000 francs and the assumption of certain claims 
against France. The part of Louisiana east of the river which was 
known as West Florida was ceded in part to Spain and in part to 
the United States by Great Britain in 1783. The Florida Purchase, 
effected by the United States in 1819, completed the transfer of 
Louisiana Territory. 
The part of the State lying west of the Mississippi River was organ- 
ized in 1804 as the Territory of Orleans, and in April, 1812 (the year 
the first steamboat made the trip from Pittsburgh to New Orleans), 
it was admitted to the Union under the name Louisiana. The area 
lying east of the river, although its ownership was disputed until 1819, 
was added to the State a short time later. 
The present State of Louisiana is about one-twentieth of the area 
of the Louisiana Purchase, which was divided into 15 States. New 
Orleans was the capital until 1829 and again from 1831 to 1846. 
Leaving the Union Station, New Orleans, the Southern Pacific train 
uses the tracks of the Illinois Central Railroad as far as Harahan 
Junction, a switch station on the north side of the Mississippi River. 
(Turn to sheet 1.) Thence the line crosses the river flat in a southerly 
direction and in 2 miles reaches the levee, over which it passes on an 
incline. Here on the bank of the Mississippi the entire train, divided 
in sections, is placed on a huge steel barge (The Mastodon) to be 
ferried ° across the swift current to Avondale, on the southwest bank, 
a distance of nearly a mile. The floats are adjustable for different 
stages of the river, for there is considerable variation in the water 
level consequent on floods and droughts. 
The Mississippi River, flowing past New Orleans to its great delta in 
the Gulf of Mexico, is the largest river in North America.” It has a 
drainage area of 1,231,492 square miles, and it flows across nearly 
the entire width of the United States. 
* This ferry is regarded as a tempo- | Orleans is from 135,000 to 1,360,000 
rary expedient, as a $20,000,000 bridge | cubie feet a second. There is @ 
is projected. mean flow of 800,000 cubic feet a second 
ies It is estimated by the Mississippi | at Old River, 130 miles above New 
River Commission that the Mississippi | Orleans, equivalent to a total annual 
River carries ually 500,000,000 tons | discharge of 25,228,800,000,000 cubic 
of sediment. The average flow at New feet. 
