According to the Mishnah (Middot 1:3), a compendium of oral teachings received and compiled by Rabbi Judah the Prince in 189 CE, only one gate on the western side of the Temple Mount was actually in use and served for coming in and for going out, namely, the Kiponus Gate. The other gates, presumably, had been sealed earlier. 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 during their war with Rome, most likely the bridge leading to the only serviceable gate.