Hey Blake,
While rereading one of my favorite local novels, “A Confederacy of Dunces,” I came across a reference to Eads Plaza. Where is or was that? What can you tell me about it?
You will likely recognize Eads Plaza by the name it was given in the 1960s: Spanish Plaza. For more than 40 years before that, its name honored James Buchanan Eads, an engineer credited with improving the navigability of the Mississippi River.
In 1875, Eads introduced the idea of building a series of jetties to narrow the river, speed up its flow and cut a deeper channel, allowing for year-round navigation. According to The Times-Picayune, the project was so successful that within a year of its completion, the port of New Orleans had grown from the ninth largest in the nation to second largest. “New Orleans owes Capt. Eads a debt of gratitude,” wrote The Daily Picayune in his 1887 obituary…