The description of Herod’s Jerusalem may be concluded by notice of the Tyropœon bridge. The spring of the arch from the west wall of the outer Temple is still visible. The voussoirs are dressed with the peculiar criss-cross dressing already described as distinguishing Herodian masonry. The position and the breadth of the bridge closely agree with the dimensions given by Josephus (in Greek feet) for the three walks of the “Royal Cloister,” which ran east and west inside the south wall of the Temple enclosure[283]: since the south wall is about 9 feet thick, and the side aisles of the cloister were 30 feet wide, the central one 45 feet wide, and the pillars about 6 feet in diameter. This bridge replaced the older one, which was broken down at the time of Pompey’s siege in 63 B. C. The older voussoirs are under the Herodian pavement. The fallen voussoirs of Herod’s bridge lie on that pavement. The bridge, as explored by Sir Charles Warren, consisted of two great arches (about 42-feet span), with a pier 12 feet thick rising from a rock foundation in the Tyropœon Valley. The roadway was 95 feet above the valley bed, or 75 feet above the pavement. This is now buried to a depth of no less than 40 feet. The cloister within was the finest of those surrounding the Temple, and its pillars were of the Corinthian order. All other cloisters of the outer Temple were double, but this was triple. Those of the inner Temple were single. Such generally was Jerusalem as Herod built its Temple and palaces, shortly before the birth of our Lord. The Temple was probably begun in 22 B. C. and finished eight years later. The fifteenth of Herod is preferable to the eighteenth,[284] because Herod’s meeting with Marcus Agrippa appears to have occurred after the completion of the Holy House, and Agrippa died at Rome in 12 B. C. But additions continued to be made to the Temple down to 64 A. D.[285] Thus, as we read in the fourth Gospel, the building had been continued for “forty-and-six years” before the time when the Jews were speaking to our Lord. FOOTNOTES TO CHAPTER VI [226] Lucan, “Pharsalia,” viii. 698–9, x. 380–1; “Psalms of Solomon,” ii. 30–3; see Drummond, “Jewish Messiah,” 1877, pp. 140–1. [227] “Ant.,” XIV. viii. 1. [228] _Ibid._, XIV. xi. 4. [229] “Ant.,” XIV. xiii. 3–10. [230] _Ibid._, XIV. xiv. 5, xv. 2, xvi. 1–4. [231] “Ant.,” XV. v. 2. [232] _Ibid._, XV. i. 1. [233] _Ibid._, XIV. xvi. 2. That is eighteen sabbatic cycles after 163 B. C., which was a sabbatic year. [234] Matt. ii. 1; Luke i. 5, iii. 1, 23. The date of the Crucifixion depends on whether the Ministry covered one or four years. [235] “Ant.,” XVII. vi. 4.