It is Mardi Gras time, some year in the middle 1950s.  The photographer is standing on the neutral ground at about Royal Street, looking outward.  Some of the ornamental street lights have been elaborately decorated for Carnival.  A viewing stand has been erected on top of the unused outer tracks about a block and a half away.  On our left, Canal car 952 is inbound toward the loop, and another Canal car is outbound passing the viewing stand.  A White bus at the curb to our right is operating on the Desire or the Gentilly line.  We can see that the crossover at the lower left, which once connected all four tracks, has been rebuilt so that it now connects only the two inner tracks.  We have an excellent view of store signs, with D. H. Holmes and Kress prominent on the right (the downtown side of Canal), and Sutton's Fairyland, Godchaux's, and Loew's notable on the left (the uptown side).  Atop many of the Canal Street buildings, we can see elaborate advertising signs, many for alcohol: I. W. Harper, Early Times, Schlitz, and others.  At night, many of these signs lit up, some with elaborate moving light displays.  (The lower picture below is a detail closeup view of the lower left part of the upper picture.) — Underwood & Underwood, photo by James Kissinger