There are usually two or more bronchial arteries. They are the nutrient vessels of the lung. The right bronchial artery arises either in common with one of the left bronchials from the thoracic aorta or alone from the first aortic intercostal. There are usually two left bronchial arteries. They arise from the thoracic aorta. Each vessel runs along the back part of the corresponding bronchus, to which it adheres, and ramifies upon the bronchial tubes, supplying them, the areolar tissue of the lungs, the bronchial glands, and the esophagus.

There are four or five esophageal arteries. They arise at different points from the front of the thoracic aorta and pass obliquely downward to the esophagus, around which they ramify. They anastomose with one another, with the esophageal branches of the inferior thyroid above, and with branches of the left gastric and phrenic below. They supply the walls of the esophagus.