Riverfront Plaza

Riverfront Plaza. Baton Rouge City Dock. , Early French colonial laws and directives required landholders along streams and bayous to build roads and levees that fronted the waterways. Spanish rule in the later eighteenth century further enforced these laws,, . The first levee along the Mississippi river was built around New Orleans between 1718 and 1727. It consisted of a slightly more than mile-long (5,400 feet; 1,646 meters), 4-foot-high earthen mound that was 18 feet (5.5 meters) wide at the top with a road along the crown., . The Flood Control Act of 1928 authorized projects that would give various river basins protection against Mississippi River floods. However, the tributary streams within the basins caused frequent flood damage that could not be prevented by Mississippi River protective works. Later amendments to this act authorized work that provided alleviation of tributary flood issues., . At one time, the Mississippi River attempted to divert most of its flow through Old River and down the Atchafalaya River. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the Old River lock and the Old River control structure to keep the Mississippi River from changing its course and also keep the Red and Atchafalaya rivers accessible to river traffic from the Mississippi., . Though the Mississippi River has more than 250 tributaries, most connections in Louisiana are distributaries. they spread the Mississippi River's water and silt across broad areas enriching the agricultural land on both sides of the river.