It is of singular importance that Josephus notes that of the gates built into the western enclosure of the Temple Mount, there was a bridge that also ascended to one of these gates and which same bridge was broken-off by the insurgents in the days of the Hasmoneans, during the reign of Pompey, most likely being one of the bridges leading to a gate that was henceforth made unserviceable. Josephus also alludes to another gate that opened to the Temple Mount from the Antonia fortress, one not normally used by the public. For fear of the Roman army gaining access to the Temple precincts through that gate, the Temple cloisters that joined to the Antonia were broken-off during the First Roman-Jewish War.