Then a rusty iron gate creaks open and a huge man pops into the twilight.

NEWYORKER: Baptizing the Gun

The younger brother left the yard, passing through a gateway in which a gate was propped open by its own weight where a hinge had given way.

NEWYORKER: The Woman of the House

People living near Portavoe Reservoir outside Donaghadee have claimed that water levels have dropped recently after a sluice gate was left open.

BBC: dead fish

And that attention helped open the gate through which Rosa Parks rode a bus taking along her young pastor who changed history.

FORBES: A Powerless New Yorker Asks: Will Superstorm Sandy Do For Climate Change What Emmett Till Did For Segregation?

But Gabi, our fixer supreme, made a couple of quick calls and we witnessed the Rwandan equivalent of Condeleeza Rice phoning a jobsworth on a gate and telling him to open it, or else.

BBC: About BBC News | This is BBC News | Here's one I made earlier

Amazingly, the initial fear (it is impossible not to be intimidated, especially just before they open the gate between you and big sharks) passes in just a few minutes, because you quickly realize that the sharks regard you with more ambivalence than curiosity.

FORBES: Diving With Sharks in Las Vegas

Then he pushed open the gate and strode toward the front porch, which was shaded by a grape arbor.

NEWYORKER: Heirs

The intruder managed to get past the first gate with a stolen set of keys, which could also open a restaurant, conference rooms and an internal lock to the drawbridges.

BBC: Quiz of the week's news

Closer to the tourist centre, a 223-room Waldorf Astoria Jerusalem is set to open in 2013 near the Jaffa Gate.

BBC: Hip Jerusalem and historic Tel Aviv

They also decided not to build a gate in front of the home, opting to leave their circular brick driveway open.

WSJ: James Patterson's Big Home Overhaul in Palm Beach