Lockport is a town on Bayou Lafourche in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana. Founded in 1835, Lockport traces its history to Jacques Lamotte, who in 1790 owned a large tract of land along Bayou Lafourche. Lamotte sold a portion of the tract to Messrs. Mercier and Marcantel in 1814. In 1823 William Field purchased a parcel of the land and later donated some of it on both banks of Bayou Lafourche, to Barataria and Lafourche Canal Company. As part of the transaction, the company agreed to build a canal, which would link Bayou Terrebonne to New Orleans. Allou D’Hemecourt surveyed the area in 1835. His map bears the name Longueville. Eventually, the village’s name would become Lockport. At first the canal, completed in 1847, brought prosperity to the area. Three years later locks were completed at the point where the canal reached Bayou Lafourche. Shipping along the canal was brisk until 1868. After that time, part of the waterway was no longer in use. The crevasse of 1876 partially destroyed the locks. Today remnants of the brick bulwark are still visible under a blanket of weeds. The village of Lockport was incorporated in 1899, and a mayor and board of aldermen were named. At the turn of the century, the village boasted a post office, brick sidewalks, an iron bridge over the bayou, a newspaper, ice house, banks, hotels, liveries, blacksmith shop, clothing stores, grocery and general merchandise stores, and various other enterprises. The iron bridge created quite a stir among the populace. It joined Lockport to Rita, the settlement on the east bank of the bayou. Through the years Lockport has managed to retain its small town quality — a quality that welcomes visitors who travel along Bayou Lafourche, the longest street in the world (Wikipedia, 2019).
Citation
Wikipedia. (2019, Aug. 16). Lockport, Louisiana. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org.
How it all Began 