Bayou St. John

Bayou St. John is a bayou within the city of New Orleans, Louisiana.The Bayou as a natural feature drained the swampy land of a good portion of what was to become New Orleans, into Lake Pontchartrain. In its natural state, it extended much farther than today; 18th- and early 19th-century maps show it had tributaries or branches (at least seasonally) reaching into what are now the Broadmoor neighborhood, the New Orleans Central Business District just back from St. Charles Avenue above Lee Circle, the Carrollton neighborhood, the Treme neighborhood, and a branch connecting to Bayou Gentilly.The portion still in existence today was navigable by canoes and similar small vessels, used by Native Americans since pre-Columbian times. The natives knew the waterway as Bayouk Choupic. There was a portage between the Bayou and the Mississippi River due to the difference in water level between the bayou and the level of the sea, which attracted early French explorers, traders, and trappers, some of whom established a small community there by the late 17th century. In 1701 a small fort was established by the French beside the Lake Pontchartrain end of the Bayou to protect this important route; Fort St. Jean would be known to future generations of New Orleanians as "Old Spanish Fort". The Bayou and portage were key factors in the selection of the site where the city was founded in 1718, at the River end of the portage route.