George T Dunbar

George T. Dunbar served as State Engineer for the state of Louisiana for a number of years in the 1830s and 1840s. Among other noteworthy facts, in abut 1835, Dunbar proposed an ambitious system of underground drainage canals beneath the streets of New Orleans. The goal was to drain water by gravity into the low lying swamps, supplementing this with canals and mechanical pumps. The first of the city's steam engine powered drainage pumps, adapted from a ship's paddle wheel and used to push water along the Orleans Canal out to Bayou St. John, was constructed in this decade. However, only a few of Dunbar's plans were actually implemented as the Panic of 1837 largely ended major systematic improvements for a generation.