Why it looks like this

Founded as Ville-Marie in 1642, Montreal grew from a walled riverside town into a grid that obeys the island, not the compass: streets run 'north' away from the St Lawrence even where that direction is really northwest, which confuses visitors to this day.

In the middle rises Mount Royal, the wooded hill the city is named for, kept as a great park designed by Frederick Law Olmsted — a permanent green hole the streets must flow around. Bridges tie the island city to its shores, and a parallel indoor city of tunnels runs beneath downtown against the winter.