The Taft Plant, operated by Occidental Chemical Corporation (OxyChem), sits along Louisiana’s heavily industrialized river corridor between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Like many facilities in the region, the plant plays a role in the state’s vast petrochemical network, producing essential compounds for plastics, coatings, and other materials that fuel modern life. At night, its illuminated sign cuts through the darkness, a quiet marker of the sprawling industry that has shaped both the economy and the environmental debates of the Mississippi River corridor.

On Baton Rouge’s Airline Highway, the road snakes beneath a tangle of overpasses and steel supports, a striking symbol of mid-20th-century infrastructure. Originally developed as a major bypass route, Airline Highway became one of Louisiana’s busiest commercial arteries, linking petrochemical plants, warehouses, and neighborhoods across the capital region. At dusk, the glow of distant lights cuts through the industrial sprawl, underscoring how this corridor remains a vital — if gritty — backbone of the city’s economy and daily life.

The Baton Rouge Chemicals North complex of ExxonMobil stands along Scenic Highway in Louisiana’s industrial corridor. Part of one of the largest integrated refining and petrochemical operations in the United States, this facility produces a wide range of industrial chemicals used globally. The illuminated sign reflects both the company’s deep roots in the Baton Rouge area and the economic and environmental legacy of the region’s petrochemical industry.

An abandoned hydraulic jack repair shop sits across from the massive ExxonMobil refinery complex in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The plant, one of the largest oil refineries in the United States, has operated since 1909 and remains a central fixture of the city’s industrial identity. The decaying storefront in the foreground contrasts sharply with the illuminated refinery tanks and piping behind it — a visual divide between small-scale industry of the past and the enduring scale of the petrochemical operations that define the region’s economy.

This nighttime industrial scene is from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, home to one of the largest oil refining and petrochemical hubs in the United States. The brightly lit towers and distillation columns belong to facilities along the Mississippi River Industrial Corridor, where refineries like ExxonMobil Baton Rouge operate around the clock. Steam and flares mark the ongoing refining processes that produce gasoline, diesel, and chemical feedstocks central to the region’s economy. The image captures the city’s long-standing connection to the energy and manufacturing industries.

The entrance sign for Shell’s Convent Refinery in St. James Parish, Louisiana, stands illuminated against the night sky. Opened in 1967, the refinery was a major facility in the state’s “Petrochemical Corridor,” processing up to 240,000 barrels of crude oil per day at its peak. Shell permanently shut down operations in 2020 amid declining demand and corporate restructuring, marking the end of one of the region’s most significant industrial sites along the Mississippi River.

The Zen-Noh Grain Corporation export facility in Convent, Louisiana, operates along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The terminal handles millions of tons of corn, soybeans, and other grains each year, transferring them from rail and barge to ocean-going vessels for global shipment. At night, the towering conveyor systems and loading arms glow under industrial lights, reflecting the region’s central role in U.S. agricultural exports.

Illuminated under floodlights, the massive concrete grain silos of the Zen-Noh Grain Corporation terminal rise over the Mississippi River in Convent, Louisiana. Operated by a U.S. subsidiary of Japan’s Zen-Noh agricultural cooperative, this export facility plays a critical role in shipping Midwestern grain to international markets. The illuminated conveyors and loading structures highlight the region’s industrial link between river transport and global food supply chains.

Entergy Corp’s natural gas-fired unit at the Ninemile power plant in Westwego. The 560-megawatt unit (known as Ninemile 6) went online in December of 2014 after a construction cost of $655 million.

Large-scale graffiti covers the façade of a decommissioned warehouse at the former Naval Support Activity base in New Orleans, Louisiana. Once part of a sprawling military logistics hub along the Mississippi River, the site has since become an unofficial canvas for artists and taggers. The “Open House” mural stretches across multiple bays of the building, symbolizing both abandonment and transformation as the complex awaits redevelopment under civic revitalization plans.

The NASA logo illuminated on the side of the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Louisiana. Established during World War II and later repurposed for the Apollo and Space Shuttle programs, the vast complex continues to play a central role in U.S. space manufacturing. Today, Michoud supports construction of major components for NASA’s Artemis missions, including the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft.

Friction-stir-weld tool for wet and dry structures on the Space Launch System (SLS) core stage. It will weld barrel panels together to produce whole barrels for the two pressurized tanks, the intertank, the forward skirt and the aft engine section.

More Info: https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/

Inside the Vertical Weld Center. The friction-stir-weld tool for wet and dry structures on the Space Launch System (SLS) core stage. It will weld barrel panels together to produce whole barrels for the two pressurized tanks, the intertank, the forward skirt and the aft engine section.

More Info: https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/

Inside NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, the Vertical Weld Center is shown — a precision friction-stir welding system used to join the massive aluminum alloy panels that form rocket fuel tanks and core stages for the Space Launch System. The bright blue and yellow structures are part of the tooling system that ensures millimeter-level accuracy during assembly, critical for the Artemis program’s deep space missions.

Inside the cavernous NASA Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, the green-painted structure of a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket component dominates the factory floor. Surrounded by yellow access platforms and intricate piping, this section is part of the massive tooling infrastructure used to assemble and test rocket core stages. Overhead cranes and precision systems support Boeing’s production of “America’s Rocket,” with each stage destined for integration into NASA’s Artemis program to return humans to the Moon.

The interior of the Space Launch System (SLS) fuel tank at NASA Michoud Assembly Facility.

NASA Core Stage Infographic: https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/multimedia/infographics/corestage101.html
Space Launch System: https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/index.html

The forward skirt section of NASA’s Space Launch System is shown shortly after its final assembly at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. This uppermost segment houses the rocket’s flight computers, avionics, and camera systems, forming the control center that guides the SLS during launch and ascent. Built for Artemis I (Exploration Mission-1), this structure would later be integrated into the core stage for its 2020 launch from Kennedy Space Center.

Inside NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, an advanced robotic welding system—developed by Genesis Systems Group and Boeing—assembles major components for the Space Launch System (SLS) core stage. Using friction stir welding, the robot precisely joins massive aluminum panels into the rocket’s fuel tanks and structural sections. The process ensures unmatched strength and reliability, critical for the launch vehicle that powers NASA’s Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond.

Precision barrel tooling used in the assembly of the Space Launch System (SLS) core stage stands on the production floor at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. These fixtures hold massive aluminum panels in place during the friction stir welding process, ensuring perfect alignment and uniform curvature for the rocket’s cylindrical sections. Behind the tooling, the metallic structure of a completed barrel segment can be seen, ready for the next stage of integration.

The inside of a Space Launch System (SLS) barrel used for the liquid hydrogen tank. It’s made of AI 2219, an aerospace aluminum alloy.

More Info: https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/