History of the Berlin U-Bahn began on 1 March 1985; the first section to open was between Biesdorf-Süd and Elsterwerdaer Platz. The section to Hönow was to open on 1 July 1989, just a few months before the fall of the Berlin Wall. On 9 November 1989, following months of unrest, the travel restrictions placed upon East Germans were lifted. Tens of thousands of East Berliners heard the statement live on television and flooded the border checkpoints, demanding entry into West Berlin. Jannowitzbrücke, a former ghost station, was reopened two days later as an additional crossing point. Rosenthaler Platz and Bernauer Straße on the U8
Berlin Wall vacationing in his yacht off the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. While Kennedy was angry that he had no advance warning, he was relieved that the East Germans and the Soviets had only divided Berlin without taking any action against West Berlin's access to the West. However, he denounced the Berlin Wall, whose erection worsened the relations between the United States and the Soviet Union. In response to the erection of the Berlin Wall, a retired general, Lucius D. Clay, was appointed by Kennedy as his special advisor and sent to Berlin with ambassadorial rank. Clay had been the