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The gates of Dragonstone have two doors (GoT Season 7 Episode 1).

Why? Wouldn't a gate be stronger if it had a single door, even if it were to open inwards (harder to ram open using the principle of moments, since aiming a battering ram at the edge would now be much harder).

The only reasons I could think of is that for the same width, a single wide door would: (a) have a weaker core (more of it is just wood, not reinforced), (b) have more distance between the outer edge and the hinge, requiring less force to open and (c) during peacetime you could do some flow control and traffic management with a double door, by closing only one.

On the other hand, having a wide open maw in the middle (see picture below) probably makes this very easy to ram down the middle.

The door opens

Note: this is different from the related question "Why do castle gates in GoT open inwards?"

Authors frequently delve into all kinds of engineering depth while worldbuilding; has any discussion about this come up in the books, fan interviews... to be clear, I'm not asking why this was the case historically, just in this particular realm.

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  • Not everything is built to stop a ram. They also need access and usability. A double door opens more easily when needed (which is most of the time).
    – Möoz
    Commented Jul 18, 2017 at 0:18
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    This question is confusingly written and seems to be dealing with castle gate choice and physics in general rather than specifically GoT. The answer to this question is, "The show is echoing history". The answer you are looking for, why castle gates were historically like, this is off-topic for SSF.
    – amflare
    Commented Jul 18, 2017 at 0:33
  • @Möoz, I see no reason why a double door opens more easily; it seems like twice the work and twice the force. I'd say that being battering-ram-proof is a key design feature of a castle door.
    – Jedi
    Commented Jul 18, 2017 at 2:26

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As with your other question this is nothing to do with Game of Thrones and everything to do with real life.

A single door of the same width and weight as two double doors exerts approximately four times the moment on it's single hinge as each of the two double doors. Or to put it another way, you can build your double doors four times as strong for the same hinge technology. Also hinges are stronger than the unattached edge of a door.

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    Also there's barricades. With a double door it's simple - any thick wood or metal spanning the gap (example image) between the doors will hold them closed until either it or the hinges break. With a single door, you need it to span the entire door frame and attach to the walls themselves somehow (example image)
    – user56reinstatemonica8
    Commented Jul 18, 2017 at 7:15

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