Why destroy Laketown's bridge?

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Originally Posted by alatar

Plus at what distance can dragon eyes bemuse people? What if he walked to the town end of the bridge, hypnotized some survivors and made them marry their siblings?

If you knew that that was a possibility, surely you'd throw down your bridge, just to be safe ("Better cooked that hooked!).

That made me laugh out loud. Good stuff alatar!

And StW, didn't they evacuate women children and such before destroying the bridge? This I how I remember it anyway.

I'm getting a bit fed up with this discussion (a smilie not available on this forum comes to mind: you know the 'beating one's head against a brick wall'-one) but let me reiterate and expand on one point I previously made: Lake Town was constructed as it was in order to offer the best possible protection against Smaug. When the defenders destroyed the bridge I must assume they did so because this was part of a pre-devised emergency plan. As they knew the bridge would have to be destroyed quickly I must also assume it was constructed in a manner that makes this possible.