Angola Ferry

The Angola Ferry is a small and little-known ferry service that crosses the Mississippi River connecting Lettsworth, Louisiana with the Louisiana State Penitentiary, otherwise known as the Angola Prison. It is considered difficult to access, requiring drivers to branch off the Louisiana Highway 418 on an unmarked gravel road and traveling several hundred yards thereafter. A good portion of the Area's population are unaware of its existence because it serves mainly prison personnel traveling to and from work.

This originally used to be a railroad ferry. The "Louisiana Railway & Navigation" (later the Louisiana and Arkansas Railway, now part of Kansas City Southern) used to run a Shreveport to New Orleans railroad line in competition with the "Texas and Pacific Railway" (now the Union Pacific). The two lines were on either side of the Red River; the T&P ran to a depot across the river from downtown New Orleans but the LR&N had to cross the Mississippi somehow. At first they had no bridge over the river, but a long ferry ride from Naples to Angola (hence the "Navigation" in the company's title). This proved hopeless, so a spur line was built from Lettsworth on the TP to Filston on the opposite riverbank from Angola. This ferry was, in turn, superseded by the railroad bridge at Baton Rouge in 1940.

ee also

* List of crossings of the Lower Mississippi River

Crossings navbox
structure = Crossings
place = Mississippi River
bridge = Angola Ferry
bridge signs = "LA 3190"
upstream = Natchez-Vidalia Bridge
upstream signs =
downstream = New Roads-St. Francisville Ferry
downstream signs =