St. Claude Avenue Bridge

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St. Claude Bridge in raised possition, seen from Lower 9th Ward side

In October of 2006, access over the bridge was restricted due to the great devestation caused by levee breeches during Hurricane Katrina on the Lower Ninth Ward side.

The St. Claude Avenue Bridge is a bascule bridge with four vehicular lanes in New Orleans, Louisiana over the Industrial Canal. This was originally a combination railroad/automobile bridge, with the two pairs of railroad tracks in the center of the lift span and automobile lanes straddling it. However, the railroad is long gone, and one lane in each direction passes through the truss of the bridge and one lane passes along side the truss. The bridge is integrated into the Industrial Lock structure, on the river side of the lock chamber, and it raises when marine traffic enters or exits the lock.

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 9th Ward used it to get to the dry high ground near the river on the up river side of the bridge. For some months after the storm the bridge was the only open direct route between the Lower 9th Ward and the rest of New Orleans.