Shreveport, Louisiana
From Towrs
| Shreveport, Louisiana | |
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| Nicknames : Port City , River City
Motto : The Next Great City of the South | |
| Country United: States
State: Louisiana Parish: Caddo Founded: 1836
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Area 117.8 mi² (305.1 km²)
Center
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Population 200,145 (2000)
Density 1,940.5 /mi² (749.2 /km²)
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Time zone CST (UTC-6)
ZIP codes: 71101, 71103-9, 71115, 71118-9, 71129 Area code: 318 | |
| Website: http://www.ci.shreveport.la.us
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It is the seat of Caddo Parish. Bossier City lies across the Red River in Bossier Parish and the Shreveport-Bossier City Metropolitan Area population exceeds 375,000.
Shreveport is the commercial and cultural center of the Ark-La-Tex, the area where Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas meet. Some call it the "Gateway to East Texas;" others have observed that Shreveport sits on the border between the South and the West. The city exercises a great pull over this region. Many people in the community refer to the two cities of Shreveport and Bossier City, which are separated only by the Red River, as "Shreveport-Bossier".
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History
Early settlers
The town was founded in 1836 by the Shreve Town Company, a development corporation established to start a town at the meeting point of the Red River and the Texas Trail. The Red River was cleared and made newly navigable by Captain Henry Miller Shreve, who commanded the United States Army Corps of Engineers. A 180-mile (289 km) long natural logjam, the Great Raft, had previously obstructed passage to shipping. Shreve used a specially-modified riverboat the Heliopolis to remove the logjam. The company and the village of Shreve Town were named in Shreve's honor.
Shreve Town was originally contained within the boundaries of a section of land sold to the company by the indigenous Caddo Indians in the year of 1835. In 1838, Caddo Parish was created from the large Natchitoches Parish (pronounced "NACK-a-dish") and Shreve Town became the parish seat. Shreveport remains the parish seat of Caddo Parish today. On March 20, 1839, the town was incorporated as "Shreveport". Originally, the town consisted of 64 city blocks, created by eight streets running west from the Red River and eight streets running south from Cross Bayou, one of its tributaries.
Shreveport soon became a center of steamboat commerce, mostly cotton and agricultural crops. Shreveport also had a slave market, though slave trading was not as widespread as in other parts of the state. Both slaves and freedmen worked on the river steamboats which plied the Red River, and as stevedores loading and unloading cargo. By 1860, Shreveport had a free population of 2,200 and 1,300 slaves within the city limits.
During the U.S. Civil War, Shreveport was a Confederate stronghold and the headquarters of the Trans-Mississippi Department of the Confederate Army. Isolated from events in the east, the Civil War continued in the Trans-Mississippi theater for several months after Robert E. Lee's surrender in April 1865, and Shreveport briefly became the last capital of the Confederacy. Confederate President Jefferson Davis attempted to flee to Shreveport when he left Richmond.
The Red River, opened by Shreve in the 1830s, remained navigable until 1914 when disuse, owing to the rise of the railroad, once again resulted in the river becoming unnavigable. In 1994, the Red River was restored to navigability by the Army Corps of Engineers with the completion of a series of lock and dam structures and a navigation channel. Today, Shreveport-Bossier City is again being developed as a port and shipping center.
Twentieth century
By 1903, Huddie William Ledbetter, aka "Leadbelly", a blues singer and guitarist who eventually achieved worldwide fame, was performing for Shreveport audiences in St. Paul's Bottom, a notorious red light district in Shreveport. Ledbetter began to develop his own style of music after exposure to a variety of musical influences on Shreveport's Fannin Street, a row of saloons, brothels, and dance halls in the Bottoms.
Shreveport was also home to the "Louisiana Hayride" (radio program), broadcast from the city's Municipal Auditorium that, during its heyday from 1948 to 1960, spawned the careers of some of the greatest names in American music. The Hayride featured names such as Hank Williams, Sr. and Elvis Presley (who got his start at this venue).
The coming of riverboat gambling to Shreveport in the mid-1990s spurred a revitalization of the downtown and riverfront areas. Many downtown streets were given a facelift through the "Streetscape" project, where brick sidewalks and crosswalks were built and various artistic statues, sculptures, and mosaics were added. The Texas Street Bridge was lit up with controversial neon lights, initially accompanied by a green laser which was eventually abandoned.
Geography
Shreveport is located at (32.468003, -93.771115)and has an elevation of 144ft. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 305.1 km² (117.8 mi²). 267.1 km² (103.1 mi²) of it is land and 37.9 km² (14.6 mi²) of it (12.44%) is water.
Landscape
Shreveport's landscape sits on a low elevation overlooking the Red River. Pine forests, cotton fields, wetlands, and waterways mark the outskirts of the city.
Architecture
