Early in 2013, Frau A and I spent a few months (for work, not vacation) in the U.S. Most of the time was on Long Island, but some in New York City. Even though I had lived there for four years, it still had a few surprises waiting.
One discovery: a section of the Berlin Wall.
We walked right by it one day, stood processing for a minute, then immediately snapped some photos...
Of course later, I spent some time online to learn more.
I had no idea that Wikipedia had a long page listing segments of the Berlin Wall throughout the world.
And on that page, I learned that New York City has "at least three" different secions of the Wall:
"At least three segments of the wall are located in New York City. One can be found between Gateway Plaza and the North Cove marina in the World Financial Center near the World Trade Center site. A second segment can be found in the gardens at the United Nations headquarters, among the sculptures. A third segment exists on 53rd Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues."
So we had found the segment on 53rd Street, between Madison & 5th. It has been there since 1990. I worked in an office building just a few blocks away (53rd St and Lexington Ave), but never happened to see this before.
A March 2013 NYT news article indicated that one of the segments (a different one) was removed recently.
Who knew that there was so much Berliner Mauer activity in the Big Apple?