The neutral ground down the center of West End Blvd and the Ponchartrain Expressway (I-10 from West End to the Amtrak railroad station) occupies the site of the New Basin Canal.

Built between 1831 and 1838  by thousands of Irish immigrants to connect the lake to the American Sector (now the CBD), the canal provided drainage and commerce until it was filled in the 1950's. It was built as an expansion of the Carondelet (Old Basin) Canal built in the late 1700's.

Construction of the canal played a major role in the creation of the Irish Channel neighborhood. Cholera, malaria and Yellow Fever claimed the lives of  8,000 workers during construction of the canal.

Citizens of the Lakeview area complained bitterly that closing the New Basin Canal changed local drainage and resulted in street flooding throughout their neighborhood from 1970's onward. Efforts to fix this problem as part of the SELA Flood Control Projects in the early 1990's may have inadvertently led to the levee failure during Katrina.

In one SELA project the 17'th street canal was dredged and deepened from 9.5 feet to 18 feet. The dredging stripped away a natural clay layer which had sealed the bottom of the canal. The underlying porous soil layers present at the 15 to 30 foot depth were exposed. Storm surge created pressures which forced water through the porous layer under the levee and contributed to the breach.