Why New Orleans is "she" in the text?
I'm reading text in CAE Result workbook; it's about New Orleans:
"She was the Queen of the Deep South. An aristocratic party girl decked in jewels. She could be charming and romantic. She could be corrupt and racist But most of all she had jazz rhythms beating in her carefree heart. Perhaps this was why she was called the city that care forgot'. But in 2005 New Orleans was submerged in the flood waters of a hurricane called Katrina... "

I don't understand - why the city is called "she"? Is it something about its history?

Question

Why New Orleans is "she" in the text?
I'm reading text in CAE Result workbook; it's about New Orleans:
"She was the Queen of the Deep South. An aristocratic party girl decked in jewels. She could be charming and romantic. She could be corrupt and racist But most of all she had jazz rhythms beating in her carefree heart. Perhaps this was why she was called the city that care forgot'. But in 2005 New Orleans was submerged in the flood waters of a hurricane called Katrina... "

I don't understand - why the city is called "she"? Is it something about its history?

Answer

Cities, countries and ships have traditionally had a female pronoun.  This is becoming less common, and today we usually use "it" to describe them.  But in the literature of the 19th century, this was very common, and some people continue doing it today.

Answer

Don't make the mistake of thinking it has anything to do with grammatical genders like in Russian. The author is literally comparing the city to a human girl.

Answer

It is called personification in literature,describing a thing as if it is a person.Sometimes people do this to make the text more interesting and alive.We can do this for cars,cities,boats and many other things.