Facing the Mississipi River, the triple steeples of the St. Louis Cathedral towering over the historic neighborhood the heart of the old city. Being established in 1720 as a small wooden chapel, it was actually used in the same year by the French engineer and cartographer Adrien de Pauger as the center of the street grid when he was appointed to draw the original map of the French Quarter. New Orleans was just established two years prior and the French Quarter was then known as the Vieux Carre.