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The French Quarter: New Orleans' historic, beating heart
The French Quarter: New Orleans' historic, beating heart
The New Year's Day attack in New Orleans targeted the French Quarter, one of the US city's most famous districts, visited by millions each year as a hub for music, culture and raucous nightlife.
Founded in 1718, the neighborhood is also known as the Vieux Carre or "Old Quarter" and is the historic colonial center of the city in the southern state of Louisiana.
Today, it is also the city's economic heart, attracting visitors from around the globe to its streets lined by colorful buildings, many featuring antique balconies held up by cast-iron columns, known locally as galleries.
In 2022, New Orleans hosted more than 17.5 million visitors, with tourism generating an estimated $9.1 billion in revenue, according to the New Orleans and Company non-profit group.
Many of those tourists would have visited or stayed in the six-by-13-block French Quarter, located on the banks of the Mississippi River.
The area is home to just a few thousand locals, but hosts some of the city's busiest hotels, restaurants and thoroughfares.
The attack took place on Bourbon Street, an area famed for its bars and music venues, in a city where locals say jazz was first invented by freed slaves in the 19th century.
The street named for the former French royal family is the main artery feeding the city's tourist nightlife, with people often carrying their drinks in "go-cups" as they walk down the promenade.
Footage posted on social media, purportedly of the moments before the attack, appeared to show just that New Year's night revelers bopping to music and spilling out of nearby bars as police officers ran past them to respond to an unseen commotion.
The French Quarter is a key stop on the city's annual Mardi Gras parade, one of the most celebrated events on the calendar, which attracts visitors from around the world to enjoy marching bands, floats, and raucous partying.
The parades feature "krewes" a type of social club, each with a unique history and theme who typically each organize a procession and a float for the parades, competing against their rivals.
The first parade in the 2025 Mardi Gras run-up, which runs for months, was due to be held on January 6.
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This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
