An ancient city in Pakistan, Mohenjo Daro, had a grid, as did the Greek city of Miletus. Grids, Marcuse points out, also used in Spanish settlements in the Americas and French cities in Africa, provided “a uniform layout that could easily be established in the conquering country and imposed on the colony some distance away.” But in North America, it was Penn who popularized the grid as a tool of urban planning for different, and more peaceful, reasons.
