For decades, Checkpoint Charlie has been the best-known crossing through the now-crumbling Berlin Wall, a site of daring dashes to freedom and demonstrations against hard-line East German Communist leaders.
On Wednesday, the U.S. military announced that the Cold War symbol - a small building in the middle of a roadway - will soon be dismantled.Until last year's peaceful revolution in East Germany, people seeking the release of relatives barred from joining them in the West held demonstrations at the checkpoint, some holding up protest signs for weeks.
Frequently, East German guards photographed anyone they found suspicious.
The checkpoint provided millions of visitors with the feeling they were witnessing something truly dangerous.
"You are leaving the American sector," reads a bold sign at Checkpoint Charlie. The warning is repeated in French and Russian.
Tourists strode by the checkpoint to the East German control stations 66 feet across the boundary line.
In a drab building at the East German outpost, stern-faced guards would scrutinize passports.
The clanging, metal doors - opened by buzzers - and the ceiling-mounted mirrors that let Communist guards check right down to people's feet were a chilling reminder of the differences between East and West.
The crossing was designed for use by non-Germans.
Occasionally, brave or foolhardy East Germans tried to flee through the maze of concrete and steel barriers set up by the Communists.
Usually, East German guards or bullets stopped them. But sometimes, an escape attempt worked.
In January 1986, East Berlin construction worker Andreas Bratke made what must have seemed the longest dash of his 23 years, sprinting through Checkpoint Charlie and into the West.
Eight months later, Hans-Joachim Pofahl piled his girlfriend and her infant daughter into the front of a loaded gravel truck and barreled through the crossing and into the West in a blaze of Communist gunfire.
Abutting the western side of the crossing is the Haus am Checkpoint Charlie museum - rooms crammed with cars and other means used in daredevil escapes. Photographs document escapes by East Germans over the Berlin Wall, which was built in August 1961 to stem a westward exodus.
Other crossings existed, but Checkpoint Charlie was No. 1 in the public's imagination, the crossing that became famous the world over.
When the Berlin Wall was opened on Nov. 9, ecstatic East Germans ran, drove and shoved through Checkpoint Charlie on their way to the West - for many, the first time in their lives.
Despite the changes, troops of World War II allies France, Britain and the United States have continued to man the checkpoint.
East Germans have also continued to check those entering and leaving East Berlin, and they have not said what they will do with their buildings.
But the economic and monetary union of the two Germanys is due on July 1, and all border checks are to end in less than a month.