Picture 19.

This view of Canal Street looks in toward the river, with the American side (the uptown side) in the background.  We see the Clay statue in the right foreground.  On the far side of the statue (the river side), we see the turntable for the New Orleans City RR Magazine and Prytania lines, with a horsecar on the turntable (blurred because it is being turned).  We see the tracks bending around the statue, connecting this turntable with the other NOCRR turntable (for the Canal, Esplanade, and Dauphine lines) just out of sight to the photographer's right.  The outer track, built by the Canal & Claiborne RR in 1869, can be seen faintly in the right foreground in front of the horse and buggy.  The big loop for the Orleans RR lines, which circled the statue, can also be made out, faintly; there appears to be a blurred image of a horsecar traversing this loop, just under the balcony at the left of the picture.  We can clearly see the ballast block street paving.  The ornate starters houses seen in later pictures (e.g., Pictures 20, 21, etc.) have not yet been built.  Also, the St. Charles Street RR has yet to build its track crossing Canal from Royal Street (on our left) to St. Charles Street (on our right).  That track was built in 1874, so this picture was taken between 1869 and 1874.  Notice how the light horse and buggy traffic is not restricted to the right side of the neutral ground, as modern drivers might expect.  The original caption to this stereo card (Blessing's No. 407) shows how old the picture really is: “This, with No. 404, forms a Panoramic View of the South side of Canal Street from the River to the Woods.”  Imagine, part of New Orleans was still primitive enough to be described as a “woods”! — S. T. Blessing, collection of Joseph Skinner

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