The Times-Picayune's New Orleans Tricentennial project, 300 for 300, begins with a look at the city's founding in 1718 ... ish.

THEN

Pierre LeMoyne, Sieur d'IbervilleFile 

Our story actually begins on March 3, 1699, when the French explorer Pierre Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur d'Iberville, set up camp about 60 miles downriver from the site that would become New Orleans.

Nearly two decades passed before Iberville's brother, Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, returned and established New Orleans at a spot about 30 leagues (roughly 90 miles) from the mouth of the Mississippi River, where Bayou St. John ran from Lake Pontchartrain to a short distance from the river.

The exact date is in dispute, but there is agreement that Bienville put engineers to work in February 1718 to start laying out what would become the city.

NOW

A statue of Bienville, erected in 1955, is located in the 400 block of Decatur Street in the French Quarter. It lists the year of New Orleans' founding as 1717.

Spectators gather on a statue of Bienville to watch the runners pass through the French Quarter for the Crescent City Classic.CHRIS GRANGER, THE TIMES-PICAYUNE ARCHIVE 

TRIVIA

• Since March 3, 1699, just happened to be Mardi Gras, a major event on the French calendar, Iberville dubbed his landing spot, in the spelling of the time, La Pointe du Mardy Gras. The Rex organization put a plaque on the site in 1999.
• The area that became New Orleans had long been used by Indians as a portage point between the Mississippi and coastal waters to the east.
• Believe it or not, one point in favor of the site was that the land was relatively high (probably in comparison with surrounding land).
• The city was named for the regent of France, Philippe, Duc d'Orleans.

N.O. DNA

This is where it all began. New Orleans' founding followed decades of exploration by such diverse groups as Jesuit priests, traders and voyageurs from the Great Lakes, all of whom were hoping to be able to establish a settlement that vessels could reach on the lower Mississippi.

Sources: staff research, New Orleans City Guide, the Rex organization