Canal Street — The Neutral Ground

Canal Street is the widest boulevard in New Orleans and the dividing line between the original French Creole city and the American sector that grew upriver after the Louisiana Purchase. The broad median — which New Orleanians call the 'neutral ground,' a term that originated here and applies to every median in the city — was the buffer zone where the two cultures conducted business without entering each other's territory. The French side became the French Quarter; the American side became the CBD. Canal Street was never a canal; the one planned for it was never dug.