<font face="Verdana"><table><TR><TD><FONT SIZE="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Wight
Posts: 144</TD><TD></TD></TR></TABLE>
Re: The Bridge of Khazad-dum
And I think you're viewing the dwarvish traffic needs through the eyes of a 21st century American. How big is the "great paved way"? An eight-lane superhighway like the 405? A two-lane cobble-stone street? Okay, the dwarves built a road leading up to the east gate. Sure, any military force departing Khazad-dum would need some room to spread out and form up. And that pavement would make it easier for the wagons of their eastern trading partners to approach and depart. But does this mean that the road was choked with traffic? Or that the bridge span was insufficient for normal traffic? There's a whole kingdom of dwarves in there, but how many are going in and out the eastern side at any given time? A few patrols. The occasional envoy. Not much of a traffic problem there. Even a large clan of dwarves heading to the Iron Mountains to pay a visit to their kin could pass over the bridge in a matter of minutes. And of course, trade. How big is a large caravan? Twenty wagons? Forty? Those dwarves are industrious little fellows. I'm sure they could off-load even forty wagon-loads of goods in a few hours.
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