Over the past hundred years that automobiles have been popular, the traditional sizes of garage doors has changed somewhat due to a change in the size of automobiles. While the earliest garages were likely just converted carriages houses, garages built specifically for automobiles were often quite small and only offered an eight foot opening which was fine for the automobiles made decades ago. Today's garage doors must often accommodate large SUVs and as a result must be very wide. Some new garages may offer a heavy wooden door or wrought iron door that swings out horizontally instead of the modern vertically raised opening.