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 appellation 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 converted 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 14 the breadth.