Pictures 13, 13.5, and 14.

In New Orleans, just a little bit of snow can paralyze the city, because it is so rare that no one is used to it, and there is no snow removal equipment.  Here is what 8 inches of snow did to Canal Street traffic on Valentine's Day, 1895.  This is two years after electrification of the NO&C RR, but the lines on Canal Street had just begun to be electrified in mid-1894.  No trolley wires are visible on Canal Street in these pictures.  There are still plenty of bob-tail horse cars to get stuck in the snow.  According to the New York Times of February 15, “Traffic on all the mule cars has stopped, and not more than a dozen electric cars are now running.”  The steel lighting tower is at the corner of Carondelet/Bourbon and Canal.  It was built some time between 1885 and 1887, and taken down in 1897.  (Thanks to Morris Hill for that information.)  In the bottom picture, the leftmost car is marked “Canal & Tulane Ave.”  The top and bottom pictures are from published postcards, while the middle picture appears to be the original from which the postcard of the top picture was created.  Notice how the trails in the snow at the right have been smoothed out in the postcard.  Incidentally, this snowfall set a record which stood until December 31, 1963. — Collection of Anthony Posey & Crystal Craddock-Posey (middle), Grombach-Faisans (bottom)

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