Editor’s note: Another killer post from NOadventure writer Whitney Mackman.

For four years I’ve been teased by those ever-present twin stacks rising along the banks of the Mississippi, just behind the Crescent City Connection. But every time I drive by to find a way in, someone is filming a movie. This time, however, I had a plan. Terminator 5 just wrapped and abandoned the grounds. It was the 4th of July, so all the police were busy downtown.

The Market Street Power Plant was built in 1905 and operated by New Orleans Public Service Inc. until 1973, when it shut down. Entergy sold it to Market Street Properties in 2007 and, as usual in New Orleans, there are plenty of plans for future development that have yet to take off.

The inside was eerie. Every time the wind blew the storm-loosened metal sheets on the roof, we thought we had been caught. I could barely wrap my mind around how this power plant worked, as I’m sure all the pertinent machinery had been taken out. You can see where there was an intentional pool of water below a massive windowed room with lots of steel. We climbed shifty steel staircase after staircase, ducking in and out of doorways that led to more huge rooms, rusted machinery, gutted control pads, steel jungle gyms, and Dr. Seuss pipes.