Why it looks like this

Founded in the 1490s by Bartholomew Columbus and moved to the west bank of the Ozama River in 1502, Santo Domingo is where European urbanism entered the Americas: the first cathedral, first hospital, first university — and the first planned grid, whose straight blocks around the Plaza Mayor became the template that Spain later wrote into law for hundreds of colonial cities.

The Zona Colonial still keeps that original network, with Calle Las Damas — named for the ladies of the viceregal court — as the hemisphere's oldest paved street. The modern capital spreads west along the Caribbean shore, its grand seafront Malecón fronting a city of millions.