The grid plan, also known as the grid street plan or gridiron design, is a sort of city layout in which streets run at right angles to one another, forming a grid. The grid plan extends back to antiquity and originated in a variety of civilizations; grid plans were used to construct some of the first planned towns. Modern cities around the world include small grids within their downtown areas. In North America, the grid plan was developed by French colonists in Canada and by English settlers in the United States. The early French settlements were based on the cadastral survey system used by France when granting land grants. When building new houses or shops, builders would follow a uniform pattern and place them along straight lines with equal distances between buildings and streets. This method resulted in compact, self-sufficient communities that could support large armies during the wars with Britain and France. English settlers built their own versions of the grid plan when they arrived in what is now the United States. They brought with them the tradition of planning towns in the British model and modified it to fit their needs. Some American colonies did not have unified governments until years after their founding, so most early cities were not planned by any official body but rather by private individuals or groups who wanted to create communities for themselves. These cities tended to be less organized than those founded by governments that had staff members responsible for planning and development.