According to the history published by the city, Gretna's history can be traced to a plantation established by Jean-Charles de Pradel by 1750 (when the plantation house,
Monplaisir, was built). By 1813, the plantation had passed into the hands of one François Bernoudy.
John McDonogh (also spelled John McDonough), then a resident of New Orleans, bought the establishment, moved into the house and founded a settlement in 1815, that would be named
McDonoghville. He subdivided the rest of the former plantation into regular city lots and 30-
arpent farming strips. McDonoghville thus became the first subdivision in Jefferson Parish. McDonough either leased or sold these properties to white laborers or free people of color. Gretna was settled in 1836, originally as
Mechanikham, growing with a station on the Mississippi River for the
Missouri Pacific Railroad,
Texas and Pacific Railway, and
Southern Pacific Railroad, with a
ferry across the River to New Orleans. The famous food and
spice company
Zatarain's, founded in 1889 in New Orleans, has been located in Gretna since 1963. Gretna was incorporated in 1913, absorbing the section of
McDonogh within the Jefferson Parish boundaries. In the 1940 census, Gretna had a population of 10,879.
Hurricane Katrina controversy levee at Gretna, 2005 The city and its police received considerable press coverage when, in the aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005, people who attempted to leave New Orleans on foot using the
Crescent City Connection bridge to cross the Mississippi River were turned back at gunpoint by officers from the City of Gretna Police, Crescent City Connection Police, and Jefferson Parish Sheriff's deputies guarding a
roadblock that had been set up on the bridge in the days following the hurricane. According to eyewitnesses, some officers threatened to shoot those coming from New Orleans as they attempted to cross into Gretna on foot, shots were fired overhead, and downdraft from a police helicopter was used to help clear refugees from the bridge. New Orleans Police Department 911 operator Patryce Jenkins, having walked the city for two days after her dispatch center was flooded, tried to return to her unflooded Gretna apartment via the bridge. Though she had ID to prove her status as a resident, she said instead of checking it police ordered her to turn back, used racial slurs, and fired a warning shot over her head, leaving her crying in disbelief. Gretna mayor Ronnie Harris pointed out though the city had not flooded, Gretna had been severely damaged as well, losing power, water, and sewage services, claiming the city had no food, no water, no shelters, and no capacity to take refugees. Harris said that the city had commandeered buses and been transporting a crowd of about 6,000 refugees to a nearby FEMA facility. But he said the city enacted the blockade after a spate of door-to-door robberies began in Gretna and stores at the
Oakwood Mall were looted and burned. Residents of Gretna were themselves required to evacuate after a few days. A fourth federal case, involving Regional Transit Authority workers, was scheduled to go to trial in April 2011. Several other cases were filed in New Orleans Civil District Court. ==Geography==