Think of gangway as a thin strip of space kept open so that a person can get through. Around it things are packed tight: two rows of seats, two house walls, a crowd, or the water between a boat and the pier. The strip is always narrow, it is only for passing, and it stops being a gangway the moment something is left in it. The old English word behind it, gangweġ, simply means a way you walk along.
From the word’s history
From Middle English gangway, from Old English gangweġ ('passageway, thoroughfare'), that is gang ('walking, going') + way. The modern senses all keep that literal reading: the way you walk along.
依據來源記載，這個字來自中古英語 gangway，再往前是古英文 gangweġ（通道、大路），拆開就是 gang（走）加 way（路）。今天的每一個用法都還守著這個字面意思：人走過去的那條路。
Wiktionary entry “gangway” (evidence packet etymology_text): Middle English gangway < Old English gangweġ ('passageway; thoroughfare'), gang + way; related to Dutch/Norwegian gang ('hallway').
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