The milky way is often considered to be an intermediately wound, barred spiral, which would be type according to hubble.

SBb

On 1930 the astronomer Edwin Hubble classified the galaxies based on their visual appearance into elliptical, spiral and irregular, being the first two classes the most frequent.  

So, according to this classification, the Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy (SBb in Hubble's notation system) because it has a central bar-shaped structure of bright stars that spans from one side of the galaxy to the other. In addition, its spiral arms seem to emerge from the end of this "bar".

Scientifics considered this, after measuring the the disk and central bulge region of the galaxy, and the conclusion is the Milky Way fulfills these conditions, because is a galaxy that orbits on its same axis and with this rotation its arms are twisted in opposite directions around the mentioned axis.