Eastgate of the Bridge

After the War of the Last Alliance and the defeat of Sauron at the end of the Second Age, the victorious Isildur spent two years in the South-kingdom of Gondor. His seat as High King, however, lay at Annúminas in the North-kingdom of Arnor, and so he set out from the Gondorian capital of Osgiliath, committing the southern realm to his nephew Meneldil. Anduin the Great River flowed through Osgiliath, spanned by a great bridge, and because Isildur's plan was to follow the river's eastern bank northward for the early part of the journey, he departed through the bridge's Eastgate. There he left Meneldil as he led a small troop of Men away towards the North.

In the event, their farewell at the Eastgate proved to be the last time that Isildur and Meneldil would see one another. Isildur's northward journey ended in disaster as he was attacked by a band of Orcs and was lost as he attempted to cross the river, and with him the Ring that he bore. With the High King slain, Meneldil found himself the sole ruler of the South-kingdom, and founded a line of Kings that would last far into the Third Age.

The Eastgate of the Bridge is mentioned only as a passing reference, but nonetheless it provides one of our very few clues to the layout and architecture of old Osgiliath. Osgiliath had several bridges, but among them was a 'great stone-bridge'¹, and this must have been the bridge guarded by the Eastgate. The bridge would stand long into the Third Age, until it was broken in III 2475 when the first Uruks appeared to ravage Ithilien and destroy Osgiliath. The fact that the bridge had an Eastgate would seem to imply that there was also a Westgate on the river's western bank, but this detail is not specifically confirmed.