ew Orleans is a city of neighborhoods, like any other city. The only difference is that sometimes the directions given to these neighborhoods can be a bit confusing to the first time visitor. Because of the bend of the river, much of the city is laid out at angles that generally render conventional directions such as north and south fairly useless. Thus a person could be standing on the banks of the Mississippi River at the French Quarter and be facing south, then travel to Uptown New Orleans and face west from the same bank. Native New Orleanians have solved this dilemma by using the descriptive phrases riverside, lakeside, uptown, and downtown as illustrated here. So the uptown riverside corner of a particular city block would be the one towards the river and in the direction of uptown New Orleans.

There are also nine major areas that the new visitor should acquaint him or herself with. The first and most famous is the French Quarter, seen on the map here as an orange rectangle. This is the oldest and most famous section of New Orleans, and is usually the starting place for most visitors. It is laid out in a simple grid of streets, 14 by 7 in number, and contains approximately 90 blocks. It is oriented roughly southwest to northeast in order to lie parallel with the Mississippi River, with a place d'arms or central square facing the river. On this place d'arms, known as Jackson Square today, was placed the public buildings of the time, these being St Louis Cathedral, the Cabildo or government house, and the Presbytere (priests' residence).This small enclave served as a city/colony for approximately 100 years before the influx of people dictated that theareas outside of the original protective walls around the old town had to be developed.

One of these areas outside of the walls was called the American section. This area is immediately west of the old town, on the other side of Canal Street, and extends roughly to present-day Julia Street. This is the Central Business District, the modern heart of New Orleans, with it's high rise commercial buildings and hotels. Shown here in blue, this area was divided up from the former Gravier plantation and turned into residential lots, and renamed the Faubourg Ste Marie. This land was immediately bought up by the newly arrived Americans, most of whom came here in the early 1800s when the Louisiana Purchase officially made New Orleans a part of the United States. These newcomers, because they were looked upon as outsiders by the sophisticated French Creoles, were not welcome in their circles. As a result, two separate societies sprung up, one on the west side of wide Canal Street and the other on the east. This is reflected in the architecture: this section appears more American than Spanish or French.