page_title: St. Claude Avenue Bridge
hierarchical_section_title: St. Claude Avenue Bridge
caption_attribution_description: English: New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina: St. Claude Avenue, Bywater neighborhood. Checkpoint into severely damaged Lower 9th Ward neighborhood Saint Claude Bridge over the Industrial Canal
context_page_description: The St. Claude Avenue Bridge is a bascule bridge with four vehicular lanes over the Industrial Canal in New Orleans, Louisiana. This was originally a combination railroad and automobile bridge, with two pairs of railroad tracks in the center of the lift span and automobile lanes straddling it. The railroad is no longer there, its place on the bridge taken by additional vehicular lanes. One lane in each direction passes through the truss of the bridge and one lane passes alongside the truss. The bridge is integrated into the Industrial Canal Lock structure, on the river side of the lock chamber; it raises when marine traffic enters or exits the lock.
  The Upper Ninth Ward, which includes neighborhoods such as the Bywater neighborhood, is on the upriver side of the bridge, and the Lower Ninth Ward on the downriver side.
  In the aftermath of the levee failures during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, many people took refuge from the flooding atop the bridge, and people from the severely flooded Lower Ninth Ward used it to get to the dry, high ground near the river on the upriver side of the bridge.
context_section_description: The St. Claude Avenue Bridge is a bascule bridge with four vehicular lanes over the Industrial Canal in New Orleans, Louisiana. This was originally a combination railroad and automobile bridge, with two pairs of railroad tracks in the center of the lift span and automobile lanes straddling it. The railroad is no longer there, its place on the bridge taken by additional vehicular lanes. One lane in each direction passes through the truss of the bridge and one lane passes alongside the truss. The bridge is integrated into the Industrial Canal Lock structure, on the river side of the lock chamber; it raises when marine traffic enters or exits the lock.
  The Upper Ninth Ward, which includes neighborhoods such as the Bywater neighborhood, is on the upriver side of the bridge, and the Lower Ninth Ward on the downriver side.
  In the aftermath of the levee failures during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, many people took refuge from the flooding atop the bridge, and people from the severely flooded Lower Ninth Ward used it to get to the dry, high ground near the river on the upriver side of the bridge. For some months after the storm the bridge was the only open direct route between the Lower Ninth Ward and the rest of New Orleans.
caption: In October 2005, access over the bridge was restricted due to the devastation caused by levee breaches on the Lower Ninth Ward side during Hurricane Katrina.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot SD400", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "QuickTime 6.5", "Image DateTime": "2005:10:26 11:04:47", "Image HostComputer": "Mac OS X 10.3.3", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "252", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "2376", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4938", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/640", "EXIF FNumber": "49/10", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2005:10:25 12:31:16", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2005:10:25 12:31:16", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "149/16", "EXIF ApertureValue": "147/32", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "147/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "87/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2592", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1944", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "11520", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "81000/7", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}