Bayou Bienvenue

Bayou Bienvenue is a 12.1-mile-long (19.5 km) bayou and "ghost swamp" in southeastern Louisiana. It runs along the political border between Orleans Parish and St. Bernard Parish to the east of New Orleans. The Bayou Bienvenue Wetlands Triangle viewing platform in the Lower Ninth Ward provides expansive views of the bayou and also serves as an educational resource about restoration efforts in the area.

A part of the central wetlands system that ran from the Lower 9th Ward all the way to Lake Borgne, today only roughly 400 acres remain of the once thriving cypress swamp. Like other freshwater bayous throughout the Mississippi River Delta, Bayou Bienvenue consisted of old growth cypress and many native species of plants and animals; "What is now open water used to be an old–growth swamp that was filled with cypress trees, water lilies, and freshwater wildlife such as fish, alligators, otters, birds, and crawfish. The cypress trees were once so thick you could pull yourself along in a canoe or pirogue just by reaching out to grab cypress knees."

Beyond its ecological significance, Bayou Bienvenue has served cultural functions to the populations of the surrounding areas throughout the area's history of human occupation. Archaeological digs have yielded evidence that indigenous peoples of hunter-gatherer societies inhabited the area as far back as 400 A.D. The arrival of French explorers in the late 1600s began nearly two centuries of disagreements, disputes, and armed confrontations between French, Spanish, British and later American interests as the colonial era of North America progressed. Bayou Bienvenue gained its name during the initial French occupation; 'bayou bienvenue' is French for "welcome bayou".

From the beginning of European exploration of North America, slave labor was used to facilitate the interests of the colonizing powers.