Picture 69.

This is one side of a stereoview of Canal St. “looking west”.  Assuming the usual New Orleans convention, that “north” is downtown from Canal St., this means that the view looks out toward the lake, and is almost true compass north.  The caption on the card says it looks from Burgundy Street, but it must have been taken with what today we would call a telephoto lens, because the intersection in view is Canal and Rampart Streets.  The closest streetcar, car 143, is labelled Magazine, which dates the photo to the brief period of October 13 to December 29, 1902, when the Magazine line was “married” to the Dauphine line.  Car 143 was one of the group 116-165 ordered from Brill in April 1894.  Further in the distance we see another car on Canal Street; it could be on the Esplanade Belt or the Villere line.  In the distance we can see a plume of smoke from a steam engine; if this is on the streetcar tracks, it is not pulling a passenger train, as the West End line began using electric power in place of steam power in 1898.  One might speculate that it is a leftover West End steam dummy pulling some kind of work train.  Note the dual gauge on the outer track in the foreground.  The outer track on the far side of Rampart is standard gauge for the North Claiborne line.  The wide gauge track turning in from Rampart was used by the Dryades line.  My profound thanks to Morris Hill for this analysis. — George Parradee

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