Known also as Souq Medhat Pasha (the covered western part) and Sharia Bab Sharqi (the eastern part), the main east-west street that bisects the Old City has historically been known as Straight St, from the Latin, Via Recta.
While it's not exactly straight these days, this street was the main thoroughfare of Damascus during Greek and Roman times, when it would have appeared something like the main avenues still seen at Apamea or Palmyra. It was four times its present width and planted with a seemingly endless row of columns that supported a canvas street covering.
