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Like every other aspect of medieval life, drawbridge technology changed and evolved over time.

Gates are always the weakest part of any defensive system. The earliest Norman drawbridges in earth and timber motte-and-bailey castles provided a means of preventing the enemy access to wooden gateways (such castles had walls and towers constructed entirely of timber). A huge timber framework would allow part or all of a bridge in front of it to be raised by means of overhead horizontal beams linked to the bridge with ropes and counterweighted at the back. This type is often called a "lift bridge".

In later stone castles the bridge in front of a gate might be raised via chains to windlass winches housed in the tower above the gate. Another system involved a large pit inside the tower (as well as the moat outside); the double-length bridge revolved on pivots each side, so its rear dropped into the pit and its front closed flush against the gateway. Any attacker would therefore have to cross the moat outside, break through the raised bridge and then have to cross the large internal pit.

The links below take you to images of some of these methods:

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14y ago

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