Canal Street, New Orleans, Visitor Guide & Things to Do Nearby

Canal Street is the wide avenue in New Orleans, Louisiana, that marks the upriver edge of the French Quarter. It takes its name from a canal that was planned along this line but never dug. For a long time it was the boundary between the old Creole city and the newer American one, and that history still shapes how locals talk about the city.

The story behind it

Canal Street runs roughly 170 feet across, one of the broadest streets in the city. A canal was once planned here, but it never happened, and the street kept the name anyway. What the street did become was a border. On one side lay the colonial Vieux Carré, the French Quarter we know today. On the other grew the American Sector, now the Central Business District.

The strip down the middle, where the streetcar tracks run, was called the neutral ground, a space belonging to neither community. The term stuck. New Orleanians still use it for every grassy median in the city, even ones that never separated anyone.

What to look for

• The neutral ground itself, the wide central strip with the streetcar tracks, which is the original dividing line between the two old communities.
• The large white Maison Blanche building on the Quarter side of the street, a former department store that now houses the Ritz-Carlton hotel.
• The contrast between the older low-rise Quarter on one side and the taller commercial buildings of the Central Business District on the other.
• The street signs where the Quarter's streets meet Canal and continue under different names on the far side.

Tips for your visit

• Canal Street is a public street, so it is free to walk. Give it 15 to 20 minutes if you want to take in the width of the street, the streetcars and the view in both directions.
• Morning is a calm time to look at the buildings, while later in the day the street is busier with traffic and passers-by.
• The French Quarter is a short walk away, so Canal Street works well as a starting point or a pause between the Quarter and downtown.
• Watch for the streetcars when you cross the tracks, and use the crossings at the lights. For shops or hotel interiors, check current opening hours.

See it on a quest

Ghost Hunt in New Orleans passes through Canal Street as one stop on a longer walk through the area. You reach it on foot, the app tells you about the place as you arrive, and you solve a puzzle based on what is in front of you. The ghost theme gives you a reason to look more closely at streets you might otherwise just cross. You can start whenever you like, with no guide and no group to join, and one ticket covers the whole group.