We are a small dot on a single tendril dancing around the milky way maypole. Gravity flattens it all to a disk that, if seen on a clear night, looks like this:

Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party from William Castleman on Vimeo.

Why do we call it the Milky Way? Thank Chaucer.

"See yonder, lo, the Galaxyë
Which men clepeth the Milky Wey,
For hit is whyt." (For it is white, thanks Sam)

—Geoffrey Chaucer, Geoffrey Chaucer The House of Fame, c. 1380.