The Chef Menteur Pass is a narrow natural waterway which, along with the
Rigolets
Rigolets is a 12.9 kilometer (8 mi) long deepwater strait in Louisiana. "Rigolets" comes from the word ''rigole'', French for 'trench' or 'gutter'. The name is now locally pronounced "RIG-uh-leez".
The strait begins at and follows a genera ...
, connects
Lake Pontchartrain
Lake Pontchartrain ( ) is an estuary located in southeastern Louisiana in the United States. It covers an area of with an average depth of . Some shipping channels are kept deeper through dredging. It is roughly oval in shape, about from wes ...
and
Lake Borgne
Lake Borgne (french: Lac Borgne, es, Lago Borgne) is a lagoon of the Gulf of Mexico in southeastern Louisiana. Although early maps show it as a lake surrounded by land, coastal erosion has made it an arm of the Gulf of Mexico. Its name comes fro ...
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a U.S. state, state in the Deep South and South Central United States, South Central regions of the United States. It is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 20th-smal ...
. It begins at and follows a generally southeastward course. In the days of sailing ships, much commerce from the
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United S ...
sailed through the pass and the Rigolets into Lake Pontchartrain to New Orleans and surrounding communities. The Lake Catherine neighborhood of New Orleans is to the east side of the pass. The Venetian Isles neighborhood of New Orleans is to the west of the pass.
Chef Menteur Pass was long guarded by Fort Macomb, now an abandoned ruin on the western side of the pass. Two bridges span the pass. The automobile bridge, constructed in 1929, carries
U.S. Highway 90
U.S. Route 90 or U.S. Highway 90 (US 90) is an east–west major United States highway in the Southern United States. Despite the "0" in its route number, US 90 never was a full coast-to-coast route. With the exception of a short-lived ...
; the portion of this road between central New Orleans and the pass was long known as "Chef Menteur Road" before the route became a U.S. highway. Portions are still known as "Chef Menteur Highway." The CSX railroad bridge also spans Chef Menteur Pass a short distance south of the highway bridge.
This area was hit hard by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The Highway 90 bridge was the only bridge open from the day that the hurricane struck on 29 August 2005 and remained open for sometime after the hurricane to aid residents of Slidell access to New Orleans and to aid in access to I-10 East, I-12 West and I-59 North. Repairs to the bridge were completed in August 2006.