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The new generation of IR surveys are revealing and quantifying Galacticfeatures, providing an improved 3-D interpretation of our own Galaxy. Wepresent an analysis of the global distribution of dust clouds in the bulgeusing the near-IR photometry of 157 million stars from the VVV Survey. Weinvestigate the color magnitude diagram of the Milky Way bulge which shows ared giant clump of core He burning stars that is split in two color components,with a mean color difference of (Z-Ks)=0.55 magnitudes equivalent to A_V=2.0magnitudes. We conclude that there is an optically thick dust lane atintermediate latitudes above and below the plane, that runs across severalsquare degrees from l=-10 deg to l=+10 deg. We call this feature the "GreatDark Lane". Although its exact distance is uncertain, it is located in front ofthe bulge. The evidence for a large-scale great dark lane within the Galacticbulge is important in order to constrain models of the barred Milky Way bulgeand to compare our galaxy with external barred galaxies, where these kinds offeatures are prominent. We discuss two other potential implications of thepresence of the Great Dark Lane for microlensing and bulge stellar populationsstudies.

Milky Way demographics with the VVV Survey III. Evidence for a Great Dark Lane in the 157 Million Star Bulge Color-Magnitude Diagram