This map is a copy of an 1852 map survey of the area and shows that the earliest development of downtown Portland as a grid. You can see that the grid is set up so that it is perpendicular to and parallel to the river. That's important. The city founders don't care about true north and true south. What is significant is the river. That's how they get in and out. You can see that most of the major roads that we have today were Indian trails. There was a trail out Sandy Blvd., and Cully Blvd., others on Powell, Foster Road, Milwaukie, MLK, and Canyon Road.