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Transportation variations in Berlin are everywhere. Pedestrians flood the streets, along with cars and bicycles. Boats float down the Spree River. BVG, Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe, runs the public transit system in the city. This system offers people buses, streetcar trams, elevated trains called S-bahns and an underground subway system called the U-bahn.
Berlin's extensive underground U-bahn system is divided into nine lines that cover a combined distance of 144 kilometers (roughly 90 miles) and makes stops at 170 stations. It has been in operation since 1902 and can transport its passengers to almost anywhere in Berlin.
During the Cold War, most subway tracks and stations in East Berlin were shut down. However, some of the underground lines that ran mainly in West Berlin occasionally looped into the East below the Berlin Wall. Because trains were not allowed to stop there, they sat unused for 28 year and even today are called "ghost stations." After the wall fell on Nov. 9, 1989, train operations reopened to the East two days later.
Some of the U-bahn stations quite literally hold the doors to an even more complex part of Berlin's history. Behind some unmarked doors in certain stations are entrances to extensive networks of underground bunkers that were used throughout history, from World War I through the Cold War. These bunkers have been preserved by the Berliner Unterwelten (Berlin Underworld Association). The group gives guided tours of the bunkers every week. Berliner Unterwelten also researches and documents information about the history and structures beneath the city. BVG also gives weekly tours of the underground rail system in an open-topped train.
Most tourists and locals who go underground on a regular basis seem unaware of these bunkers and historical networks. Instead they go beneath the surface merely to use the U-bahns and S-bahns to reach their destinations. Much of the history is hidden by the efficient underground transportation system in the reunified city. |
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