Places, Earth
Lake Pontchartrain

State Parks, Historic Sites, and Museums need your help.

Throughout the country, important state parks, historic sites, homes, buildings, and museums are in trouble. Because of the recent rise in gasoline prices and the general world-wide financial collapse, state parks, historic sites, and museums are in danger of closing. Some are being forced to sell off artifacts and property. Most operate on a thin margin and will not weather these hard times without your help.

Places Earth recently encountered closed state parks in Arizona and California is threatening to close all state parks. The story is similar throughout the country.

Places Earth urges everyone to support these vital and important public resources any way you can. Please find a worthy local or distant historic site or museum that is in financial danger and donate your treasure, time, and talent. Write to your governor and other elected officials telling them to find a way to keep these parks open. It will be your loss.

Public Service Announcement

Back	Jefferson Parish Main Page

Lake Pontchartrain

Lake Pontchartrain is not a true lake but rather a brackish estuary connected to the Gulf of Mexico via the Rigolets strait and to Lake Borgne (also not a true lake) through the Chef Menteur Pass. It covers an area of 630 square miles and is about 40 miles long and 24 miles wide with an average depth of about 12 to 14 feet. The lake was formed 2,600 to 4,000 years ago when the Mississippi River Delta built alluvial deposits on the southern and eastern shorelines.

People first settled this area at least 3,500 years ago. The Native American name was Okwata which means "Wide Water". In 1699, French explorer Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville renamed it Pontchartrain after Louis Phélypeaux, comte de Pontchartrain, the French Minister of the Marine, Chancellor of France and Controller-General of Finances during the reign of Louis XIV.

This body of water receives fresh water from the Amite, Bogue Falaya, Tangipahoa, Tchefuncte, and Tickfaw, Rivers, and from Bayous Lacombe and Chinchuba. Lake Maurepas, a true fresh water lake, connects with Lake Pontchartrain on the west via Pass Manchac. The Industrial Canal in New Orleans connects it to the Mississippi River. Bonnet Carré Spillway diverts water from the Mississippi into the lake during times of river flooding.

The lake lie in the southeast corner of Louisiana and covers parts of six parishes, (in order of largest to smallest) St. Tammany, Orleans, Jefferson, St. John the Baptist, St. Charles, and Tangipahoa.

The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway was constructed in the 1950s and 1960s, connecting New Orleans (by way of Metairie) with Mandeville.. The Causeway is 24 miles long which makes it the longest bridge over a body of water in the world.


Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, at 24 miles, it is the longest in the world.

Jefferson Parish Main Page

This page last updated: Friday, 19-Feb-2010 20:51:49 CST

Note: This is not the official site for any of the places shown in Places Earth. Places Earth is not responsible for accuracy of the information. Hours of operations, prices, exhibits, and sometimes locations are subject to change without notice.

Support this Web Site This web site started because of my love for Architecture and interest in History. This web site is for your benefit and I make no profit on it. I don't allow paid advertising. This site is supported primarily from my regular paycheck as a Set Designer and there haven' been many this year. My wife sells Gold Canyon products at www.valleygirlcandles.com and I sell art at www.klimages.com. A non-tax deductable donation to help cover the cost of operating this web site may be made to Kesign Design Consulting through PayPal ...
Valley Girl Candles	Or, donations can be mailed to the address on the contact page.	Valley Girl Candles

This site maintained by Kenneth A. Larson.
Copyright © 2004 - 2010, Kenneth A. Larson. All Rights Reserved.
Website content including photographic and graphic images may not be redistributed for use on another website.

This site is a non-commercial alternative to my commercial design portfolio site. This site's only purpose is for your enjoyment. There is no advertising and I make no profit. If you are in the need of a designer, please check my commercial site www.kesigndesign.com.

Places, Earth Lake Pontchartrain

State Parks, Historic Sites, and Museums need your help.

Lake Pontchartrain

This page last updated: Friday, 19-Feb-2010 20:51:49 CST

Places, Earth
Lake Pontchartrain