Iron Gate

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Iron Gate,

Rom. Porţile de Fier, Serbian Gvozdena Vrata, gorge of the Danube River, c.2 mi (3.2 km) long and c.550 ft (170 m) wide, on the Serbia-Romania border between Orşova and Drobeta-Turnu Severin. There the river narrows and swiftly flows through a gap between the Carpathian and Balkan mts. Iron Gate, formerly an obstacle to shipping, was cleared of rock obstructions in the 1860s; the Sip Canal (opened 1896) permits large river craft to get past the gorge. Iron Gate is the site of one of Europe's largest hydroelectric power dams. The joint Serbian-Montenegrin-Romanian project (opened 1971) improved river navigation by impounding a large lake and has a substantial electricity generating capacity.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Iron Gate

(in Rumanian, Portile de Fier), a gorge of the Danube River Valley on the Yugoslav-Rumanian border, below the city of Orsova. The Iron Gate is a part of the Djerdap. It is 15 km long. There are rapids in the channel, making navigation difficult; in 1898 a by-pass canal 2.5 km long was built. From 1964 to 1972, Yugoslavia and Rumania, with the scientific and technical assistance of the USSR, constructed a navigation system and a hydroelectric power plant with an output of 2.1 million kW.

Iron Gate

, Iron Gates

a gorge of the River Danube on the border between Romania and Serbia and Montenegro. Length: 3 km (2 miles)

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

References in classic literature ?

After following this path some way toward the main road to Paris, they came to another iron gate which led to the principal facade of the mysterious dwelling.

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In front of them, underneath the terrace, was a little iron gate, held open now by Meekins, who had gone on ahead and dismounted from his bicycle.

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While the present century was in its teens, and on one sunshiny morning in June, there drove up to the great iron gate of Miss Pinkerton's academy for young ladies, on Chiswick Mall, a large family coach, with two fat horses in blazing harness, driven by a fat coachman in a three-cornered hat and wig, at the rate of four miles an hour.

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I must go and look through that iron gate at the same view, without being able to see it so well."

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He was just putting little hand on the dog's neck and beginning to smile through his tears, when I heard behind me a click of the iron gate, and a rustle of female garments, and lo!

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It was entered by a large iron gate, at which stood the first lodge, and then you trotted along on a smooth road between clumps of large old trees; then another lodge and another gate, which brought you to the house and the gardens.

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Father, I firmly do believe - I know - for Death, who comes for me From regions of the blest afar, Where there is nothing to deceive, Hath left his iron gate ajar, And rays of truth you cannot see Are flashing thro' Eternity -- I do believe that Eblis hath A snare in ev'ry human path - Else how, when in the holy grove I wandered of the idol, Love, Who daily scents his snowy wings With incense of burnt offerings From the most unpolluted things, Whose pleasant bowers are yet so riven Above with trelliced rays from Heaven No mote may shun - no tiniest fly The light'ning of his eagle eye - How was it that Ambition crept, Unseen, amid the revels there, Till growing bold, he laughed and leapt In the tangles of Love's very hair?

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In the middle of the meadow stood a huge stone castle, with an iron gate leading to it, which was wide open.

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Come, flame of gas, burning so sullenly above the iron gate, on which the poisoned air deposits its witch-ointment slimy to the touch!

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We were shut out that night, and sat at the iron gate, and walked about till morning.

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The appearance of the unconscious Durdles, holding the door open for his companion to follow, as if from the grave, is ghastly enough, with a purple hand across his face, and a yellow splash upon his brow; but he bears the close scrutiny of his companion in an insensible way, although it is prolonged while the latter fumbles among his pockets for a key confided to him that will open an iron gate, so to enable them to pass to the staircase of the great tower.

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He was too prudent to say anything, with the journey home before him; and therefore turned to the iron gate before which this brief dialogue had passed, and pulled the handle of the bell that hung beside it.