Why all the gates?

[ACodd]

Why did they put so many gates in the Carter-McKay Bridge? It seems like a waste to me, as they could have just dialed the midway station from anywhere in either galaxy, and then dialed into anywhere the opposite galaxy, without any macros or gate harvesting.
Also, why did they have two gates, one from both galaxy's, when they could have just had one? It would have made things much easier, both to defend and program (they wouldn't need to write the workaround Rodney mentions in "Enemy at the Gate")

[Kastang]

I believe all the gates were used to minimize ZPM power usage while dialing between Atlantis and Earth (and the other way around because at times Earth didn't have a disposable ZPM to use for gate travel).

Since Midway was located between two galaxies, I am not sure if it would have even been possible to dial Midway directly because the coordinates would not be unique to either Galaxy. Either way though, it would require much less power to use the several gate sequence macro rather then dial Midway directly.

The reasoning for two gates at Midway is Pegasus and Milky Way gates both dial different coordinates in space. (I believe) The Milky Way gate cannot dial Pegasus coordinates (and vise versa) without re-configuration.

[kernl sandrs]

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[kernl sandrs]

Did Mckay not already explain this?

"Thirty-four Gates from both the Milky Way and Pegasus Gate systems have been strategically placed in the massive void between our two galaxies. Simply enter on either side -- for example, Atlantis -- and boom! A macro that I have written specially for the occasion will command each Gate in the chain to store you in its buffer and forward you along to the next, and the next, and the next, and the next, and the next until you arrive here. Once at the midway space station you simply exit the Pegasus Gate system and enter the Milky Way Gate system where a similar macro designed by yours truly will forward you along to the S.G.C. Total travel time, a little over thirty minutes. Cue applause."
—Dr. Rodney McKay

[Gatz]

As far as numbers go each gate was placed one-milky-way away from each other. I guess the idea is this gap is the maximum distance a gate can dial without any external power sauce.

[JosephGracey]

the reason for all the gates is that that reduces the amount of power used and the reason for the two in the middle is they have completely different symbols to dial and different points in space

[Ar3s]

They did it for the lulz

[escyos]

because you wouldnt want to drain the gates power source with only one wormhole. then no one else can use it

[JosephGracey]

they made it incase they couldnt use the zpms and they needed to get to earth