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Capital of Louisiana · East Baton Rouge Parish · capital since 1849 · 30.5°N 91.2°W
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Baton Rouge, on the east bank of the Mississippi 80 miles upstream from New Orleans, became Louisiana's capital in 1849 and permanently in 1882. Its 34-story capitol is the tallest in the country.
Where Baton Rouge is
Baton Rouge is the seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, at 30.45°N, 91.19°W on the east bank of the Mississippi River. Louisiana uses parishes rather than counties. The city sits on a bluff that is the first natural high ground travelers meet coming upriver from the Gulf, which is why French explorers noted a red post, the baton rouge, marking a tribal boundary here in 1699. The Port of Greater Baton Rouge is the farthest inland point on the river that ocean-going ships can reach. Louisiana State University is at the south end of the city. Baton Rouge is on Central Time.
How it became the capital
New Orleans was the capital of the territory and, from 1812, of the state, apart from a year at Donaldsonville in 1830–31. The 1845 constitution required the capital to be at least 60 miles from New Orleans to reduce that city's influence, and Baton Rouge was chosen, with the legislature moving in 1849. During the Civil War the government fled to Opelousas and then Shreveport, and New Orleans served again from 1864 to 1882. Baton Rouge has been the capital continuously since 1882.
Population
Baton Rouge had 227,470 residents in 2020, second in Louisiana to New Orleans at 383,997. The nine-parish Baton Rouge metropolitan area has about 870,000 people, close to the size of the New Orleans metro, and it grew sharply after Hurricane Katrina displaced residents from the coast in 2005.
The capitol
Louisiana has two notable capitols. The Old State Capitol of 1852, designed by James Dakin, is a castle-like Gothic Revival building on the river bluff that Mark Twain disliked intensely; it now houses a political history museum. The Louisiana State Capitol of 1932, pushed through by Governor Huey Long and designed by Weiss, Dreyfous and Seiferth, is an Art Deco tower 450 ft and 34 stories high, the tallest state capitol in the United States. Long was shot in one of its corridors in 1935 and is buried in the garden in front of it.
Distances to other cities
| City | Direction | Road distance |
|---|---|---|
| New Orleans, LA | southeast | about 80 mi |
| Houston, TX | west | about 270 mi |
| Jackson, MS | north | about 175 mi |
Related maps
- Louisiana map — the whole state with borders, cities and counties.
- Louisiana county map · blank Louisiana map · printable Louisiana map.
- All 50 state capitals on one map, and the state capitals quiz.
- South region · West South Central division · Central Time Zone.