Brandenburg Gate on 3 October 2002 following extensive refurbishment, for the 12th anniversary of German reunification. Brandenburg Gate became the main venue for the 20th-anniversary celebrations of the fall of the Berlin Wall or "Festival of Freedom" on the evening of 9 November 2009. The high point of the celebrations was when over 1000 colorfully designed foam domino tiles, each over tall, were lined up along the route of the former wall through the city centre. The domino "wall" was then toppled in stages converging here. The Brandenburg Gate is now again closed to vehicle traffic, and much of Pariser Platz has
Hell Gate Hell Gate Hell Gate is a narrow tidal strait in the East River in New York City in the United States. It separates Astoria, Queens from Randall's and Wards Islands. The name "Hell Gate" is a corruption of the Dutch phrase "Hellegat" (it first appeared on a Dutch map as "Helle Gadt"), which could mean either "bright strait" or "clear opening", and it was originally applied to the entirety of the East River. Dutch explorer Adriaen Block, the first European known to have navigated the strait, described it in his journals during his 1614 voyage aboard the "Onrust". Hellegat is