Slidell, Louisiana, was founded in 1883 during construction of a major new railroad from New Orleans to Meridian, Mississippi, when the New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad established a building camp on the first high ground north of Lake Pontchartrain that eventually grew into the city. The Louisiana Legislature chartered Slidell as a town in 1888, and it was named after John Slidell, a prominent state, U.S., and Confederate political figure. Before its formal incorporation, its first streets were laid out in a grid pattern, with north-south streets named Bayou, now Front, First, Second, Third, and Fourth, and east-west streets named Fremaux, Erlanger, Bouscaren, and Cousin. Erlanger Avenue, slightly wider than the others, was named after Baron Frederick Erlanger, John Slidell's son-in-law and head of the banking syndicate that financed the railway; Col. Leon J. Fremaux, a prominent Louisiana engineer and planter, drew the original plans for Slidell and named Fremaux Avenue for himself; Bouscaren Street was named for G. Bouscaren, the railroad's chief engineering officer; and Cousin Street took its name from the locally prominent Cousin family. In the roughly thirty years after its founding, Slidell developed a creosote plant, one of the country's largest brick manufacturing facilities, a large lumber mill, and a shipyard. The Slidell Shipyard contributed significantly to the nation's effort in both World Wars, and Slidell residents worked in local ship, tank, and airplane construction during World War II. In the 1960's Slidell began to assume its modern profile as one of the major sites for NASA's lunar landing program, and in the 1980's and 1990's it became a regional retail center. Located at the southeastern tip of St. Tammany Parish in Louisiana's "Ozone Belt," about three miles from the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain and surrounded by rivers and bayous, Slidell is the parish's largest municipality. Its population grew from 364 in 1890 to 24,142 in 1990, with a 1999 estimate of 32,000, as it continued to deal with urban growth while preserving a sense of its history. Over the area and city have flown the flags of the Kingdom of France, the United Kingdom, the Kingdom of Spain, the Republic of West Florida, the United States of America, the State of Louisiana, the Republic of Louisiana, the Confederate States of America, and the City of Slidell.