JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Deep in the bowels in the Missouri Capitol sat the first security door of its kind to be permanently installed in the United States.

The mission: Prevent more than one person from entering the building at a time. The justification: Increased security resulting from the Sept. 11 attacks. The cost: $16,000. The reaction: Angry state workers and lawmakers.

The result: It's gone, dismantled Friday.

The South African-made door -- already used in banks in that country -- had been in operation for a tumultuous three weeks on the state Senate side of the building. Almost from the day it was put up, the door was criticized because of its cost and design.

When a code was entered, the steel door opened into a narrow glassed-in chamber. Once a person entered the chamber, a sensor triggered the door to swing back, allowing the person into the building but closing off the entryway.

Longtime state worker Kim Wade was so concerned about the door that she broke down and cried because, as a a heavyset person, she didn't fit well into the chamber.

"The first day I came in, 10 men were there. I felt inferior because I felt like I was the test for fat people," she said last week. "It was a very humiliating situation for a large person."

As workers feverishly took the door down Friday, Wade was all smiles.

"I'm happy the door is gone because it was a discrimination to large people," Wade said. "I think this is a small victory for some of us larger people."

The state Office of Administration, which had authorized the door leading from a parking garage into the Capitol, said it simply didn't work as expected.

"We're just disappointed that the state felt like it didn't meet its needs," said Fred Johnson, president of Entry Solutions, which distributes the door in the United States. "There's always the mix between security and convenience and that's always an issue."