Lake Pontchartrain
Located north of the U.S. city of New Orleans, Lake Pontchartrain is large and beautiful lake, which is rooted in cultural traditions of the United States. About Pontchartrain are written many songs, but often it is the arena of various major film productions such as the James Bond film of 2004 and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", in which Kate Blanchett and Brad Pitt welcome the sunrise on lake Pontchartrain.
It is known as the place where, so far, the longest bridge in the world is built. Known as Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, these are actually two parallel bridges that form a highway with two lanes. Its length is 38.4 km, and every day more than 300 000 cars pass through it.
Lake Pontchartrain is a salt water lake, located in southeastern Louisiana. It is the second largest saltwater lake in the U.S. after the Great Salt Lake in Utah, and the largest lake in Louisiana. Lake Pontchartrain extends over an area of 1630 square kilometers and has an average depth of about 4 meters. For the purposes of navigation, some channels are kept deeper through dredging.
Lake Pontchartrain is oval. From south to north of the lake is about 39 km and its length reaches 64 km. Interestingly the name of the pool water comes from Louis Phélypeaux, Earl of Pontchartrain, French Minister of Marine, Chancellor of France and Minister of Finance, during the reign of King Louis XIV, after whom Louisiana is actually named. Until then, local Indians called the lake Okwata ("large water"), but in 1699 the French explorer Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville renamed it to lake Pontchartrain.
The vast lake Pontchartrain was formed 2600 to 4000 years ago, resulting in the change of the delta of the Mississippi River, which forms the southern and eastern coastline with sediment. People have inhabited the shores of lake Pontchartrain about 3500 years ago, but contemporary communities stem from 300 years ago, when the first Europeans arrived here. Today about 1.5 million people live near lake Pontchartrain.
The southern coast of Pontchartrain forms the northern border of the city of New Orleans, along with its two largest suburbs- Metairie and Kenner. The north shore of the lake is known as Northshore or simply as Northlake. Here are the cities Mandeville, Covington, Madisonville, Slidell, and several parishes, forming the region of Eastern Florida.
Pontchartrain is connected to the Gulf through the Rigolets strait and the estuary, which covers the adjacent lake Borgne. To maintain the ecological balance of the lake, a special policy was developed. It is inhabited by many rare species of snakes, lizards and birds. Fishing is a popular and widely practiced hobby at Pontchartrain.
