With applogies to Joe and all but us amateur navigators have buttons too:

Ponchartrain Lakes are five miles north of New Orleans in the state of Louisiana.

Actually Lake Pontchartrain is on the border of the city of New Orleans and Orleans Parish (our equivilent of county). 5 Miles north of New Orleans is in the middle of the lake which itself is 24 miles wide at the Causeway connecting the South shore (New Orleans) with the North shore (Mandeville, Covington, Folsom, etc)

New Orleans is bounded by the Mississippi River on its South (and East and West which is why we are called the Crescent City) and by Lake Pontchartrain on its North. Locals don't use points of the compass but "river-side" and "lake-side" to communicate directions.

The distance between the Lake and the River is 4.98 miles at its narrowest and 8.03 at its widest. (Its 4.17 between river and lake in the suburb of Metairie)

These lakes are a constant menace to New Orleans, their waters having to be kept away by great earthen dykes.

The great earthen dykes are called levies

As an aside, New Orleans is bounded on the East and West by aligator-infested wetlands (swamps). The gators stocked are harvested on an annual cycle with the proportion males to females carefully controlled by incubating the gathered eggs. So much for romance!