Perhaps one of the busiest street corners in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus was the intersection of the Tyropean Avenue which ran north/south (left to right in the reconstruction below) along the foot of the western wall of the Temple Mount and intersected at the southwest corner of the Temple Mount with the Hulda Street which ran east/west along the southern wall. At this corner stood a massive stairway that led from the streets of the lower city up to the Tyropean Gate that opened into the Royal Porch and gave access to the Temple for the thousands of worshipers from the lower city.
Note the small portion of the wall just under the arch that I've highlighted in yellow
Let's take a closer look at the Tyropean Stairs below.
Note the area again highlighted in yellow. The stones that protruded from the wall supported the “spring stones,” the stones which formed the beginning of the arch support.
And below is what remains of the tremendous wall and stairway today, with the protruding support stones and above them the row of spring stones which formed the beginning of the arch. The rows of larger size stones to the left and right of this section are original Herodian ashlars. Everything above this row of stones was added to the retaining wall after the Temple buildings and courts on the top of the mount and these retaining walls down to this level were razed by the Romans in 70 A.D.
Let's take a look at the section of the street beneath this section of the wall.
This is the street below where the Tyropean Stairway once passed over the street. On the right, along the bottom of the Temple Mount wall and inside the curb stones, there once stood small shops lining the street. The blackened stains at the base of the wall is due to the shops being set on fire and destroyed by the Romans.
To the left, the stone structure formed the foundation for the other end of the monumental stairway, and the door openings led into more shops.
The streets of the old city were paved with large paving stones, many of which were broken and damaged when the Temple was dismantled by the Romans and the massive stones and rubble from the Temple and it's buildings and courts were demolished and pushed off the wall above into the streets below, breaking the street’s paving stones and creating indentations in the street from the massive weight of the stones. Many of the stones have been removed to allow access to the area, but piles of the rubble have been left to show the immense size of the broken stones. There was so much rubble from the temple and it's buildings and courts that the area was buried beneath 30 feet of rubble. The current street level can be seen in the background and beyond the fence is the section of the western wall that is the site of the "wailing wall" venerated by Jews today.
These broad paved streets and the shops that lined them would have been thronged with visitors to the city and the tens of thousands of worshipers who came to the Temple. Any one of these paving stones could have been trodden by the sandaled feet of Jesus.