In a verdant stretch of Battery Park City, just steps away from the soon-to-open Freedom Tower, sits another global emblem of freedom.
It’s a piece of the Berlin Wall, one of four segments known to be in New York (left).
How did it end up in a small, hard-to-find expanse between Gateway Plaza and the North Cove Marina?
The city of Berlin donated it to Battery Park City in 2004, the 15th anniversary of the destruction of this Cold War icon.
“These segments were originally located in downtown Berlin in the area between Potsdamer Platz and Leipziger Platz,” a sign helpfully explains.
“They were not exposed to the West (“Outer Wall”), but part of the Inner Wall that was designed to prevent East Germans from entering the heavily guarded death strip between the Inner and Outer Wall.”
A bigger section of wall can be found at lovely pocket park Paley Park on East 53rd Street (left).
There’s also pieces at the entrance to the Intrepid Museum and at the United Nations.
Tags: Battery Park City Berlin Wall, Battery Park City street, Berlin Wall in New York City, Cold War in NYC, Freedom Tower NYC, Gateway Plaza NYC, pieces of the Berlin Wall
Ephemeral New York 
June 2, 2014 at 11:22 am |
I have a chunk of the Berlin Wall. Was there when it fell, Nov 9, 1989. Was traveling across Europe at the time, happened to be there at a historic time.