User:Chadmcwhorter/sandbox

Inner Border Tourism
The Berlin Wall was a specific piece of the Inner Border that became the physical embodiment of the Iron Curtain that stood between East Germany and West Germany in the decades following the conclusion of World War II. The Berlin Wall stretched approximately 28 miles (45 km) through the city of Berlin and another 75 miles (120 km) around the edges of West Berlin and stood close to 15 feet (5 meters) in height. The sheer physical stature of the Berlin Wall in addition to becoming an iconic, international symbol of the Cold War and it's virtues, drove it to become a popular site of tourism throughout it's existence, and even after it's dismantling. Tourism of the Berlin Wall reached it's height in 1961, although an exact number cannot be given for the amount of visitors to the Berlin Wall, as there were no official records of tourism to the site made at the time. Estimates, however, are provided through the counting of tourists by Western and Eastern border guards. The numbers obtained from the border guards suggest that Berlin Wall tourism was a popular outing for German people and foreigners alike, it is reported that the Berlin Wall received approximately 1.65 million tourists in 1969 alone, with around 23,000 of those being foreign visitors. Day trips were the most popular of the ways to visit the Berlin Wall, which could be conducted even through organized tours that were governmentally funded, so long as they were presented as educational in nature.