GATE, in Architecture, a large door, leading or
giving entrance into a city, town, castle, palace, or
other considerable building. See ARCHITECTURE.
Thebes, in Egypt, was anciently known by the ap-
pellation with a hundred gates. In ancient Rome there
was a triumphal gate, porta triumphalis. In modern
Rome there is the jubilee gate, which is only opened in
the year of a grand jubilee.
The gates of London were many of them con-
verted into gaols or prisons, as Ludgate, Newgate,
&c. but they are now removed. The lesser or
by-gates are called posterns. Gates, through which
coaches, &c. are to pass, should not be less than 7
feet broad, nor more than 12; the height to be 1½ the
breadth.