My New Orleans
Photograph by John Messina for Series: DOCUMERICA: The
Environmental Protection Agency s Program to Photographically
Document Subjects of Environmental Concern, compiled 1972 - 1977
LA 1 crosses the state diagonally, from the confines of its border with Texas and Arkansas, to its other extremity, where it ends in a cul-de-sac surrounded by a motel, a restaurant and a small port harboring sport and commercial fishing boats, a few yards from the Gulf of Mexico. The last seven miles of this great journey take the traveler along a thin line drawn between two waters, a large sandbar of sorts. Diminished today by erosion, its stature was once such that it was named Grand Isle, a seaside resort for the well-to-do seeking a cool breeze and seafood close at hand. People of more modest means also enjoyed the same pleasures that a trip to the beach could bring. And then, the residents themselves, those who live there during the colder and less sunny months, often descendant