Long Bridge

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The Long Bridge is an old bridge that joins the two halves of Volantis across the mouth of the Rhoyne. It is a great span with a fused stone road supported by massive piers built by the Valyrian Freehold.

Description

The Long Bridge's gateway is an arch of black stone carved with sphinxes, manticores, dragons and other strange beasts. The road is barely wide enough for two carts to pass side by side. Buildings rise on either side of the roadway. Customers can buy almost anything in the shops on the Long Bridge. In the center of the bridge the hands of thieves and the heads of executed criminals are displayed by Volantene spearmen decorated with green tiger stripes.

Traffic is thicker at the western end of the bridge, where the streets are filled with wayns, carts, hathays and slaves.

Buildings rise on both sides of the bridge, including shops, temples, taverns, inns, cyvasse parlors, and brothels. Most are three to four stories tall and each floor extending farther than the one beneath it. The topmost floors almost reach each other. Merchants include weavers, lacemakers, glassblowers, candlemakers, and fishwives. Goldsmiths and spicers keep guards at their doors.

Here and there, between the shops, a traveler might catch a glimpse of the river he is crossing. To the north the Rhoyne is a broad black ribbon bright with stars, while south of the bridge the river joins the briny Summer Sea.

From the far end of the Long Bridge it is a short walk through the teeming waterfront districts of the west bank to Fishmonger’s Square and the Merchant's House.

Recent Events

A Dance with Dragons

After fruitlessly attempting to buy sea passage to Meereen, Quentyn Martell and his companions cross the Long Bridge in a hathay pulled by a dwarf elephant to get to the Merchant's House.[1]

Tyrion and his captor, Ser Jorah Mormont, cross the Long Bridge in order to get to the Merchant's House and the widow of the waterfront. To Tyrion, crossing the bridge feels like passing through a torchlit tunnel. He think the Rhoyne is five times as wide as the Blackwater Rush at King's Landing. Jorah considers purchasing a jeweled tiara on a bed of purple velvet and haggles over a pair of gloves at a leatherworkers stall.[2]

References and Notes