| Show THE GATES OF caa TLE GARDEN of people in this territory have passed through bastle garden darden gari dari it is the well known la I 1 plase place of all immigrants who come to this country by way of new Y york ork and there it is that several millions of peo ale have received their first impressions of the new world it is estimated that over six millions of souls have passed through the gates of this famous but it is questionable whether many individuals of the millions could it if asked describe the massive gates of that ancient structure they stand exactly as they did when they formed the original entrance to the building when it was a military fortress which the federal government erected in 1807 outside manhattan island and separated from it by a narrow strait or canal it served as a fort during the war of 1812 and a little while afterward but soon proved useless and was ceded to the city in 1823 1822 after that it was used as a place of entertainment tain ment for theatricals public balls concerts and aud various other shows VU i til the emigration commission commisS iod which had been established in ia 1847 moved into it in 1802 52 the doors are immense masses of oak studded with round knobs such as the original burglar proof safes used to present to the terror bf the covetous and the wicked kachdoor each door is ia fifteen or twenty feet high and half a loot foot thick and the enormous hinges on which they still swing owing so easily that a not over lazy man can move them to and fro are massive moul dings of iron that no ordinary battering ram could destroy |
