For more than a century, the St. Claude Avenue lift bridge over the Industrial Canal has withstood life-altering floods and record-breaking hurricanes. Bridge as neighborhood iconCrossing this historic bridge can also be a celebration, like “walking on history,” said City Councilmember Oliver Thomas, a Lower 9 native. Two men paddle a small boat through floodwaters beside the Claiborne Bridge in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward in 2005. Even the National Guard stationed on the St. Claude Bridge had no working cell service or radios, so the troops waited on orders that never came. “I’m a better person, a better man, because I get to experience that on the St. Claude Bridge,” Trammel said.