Eastbound
One of the dominant transportation features of Berlin is the S-bahn. This was noted as far back as the original film version of Berlin-Alexanderplatz in the 1920's. Here a train heads to Friedrichstrasse in East Berlin, having departed from the Zoo station in West Berlin. In a situation which dramatized the strange aspects of dividing a city, some West Berlin S-bahn passengers had to make transfer connections in the old center of the system, which fell in East Berlin. The same station continued to be served by the East portion of the old Stadtbahn line, so a border control point existed within the station.
That the S-bahn continued running as well as it did was a real triumph of 1920's German engineering. The newest cars were delivered in time for the 1936 Olympics, but most of the investment in this system predated the National Socialist takeover. The Nazis favored highway and airport construction. The post-war owners were, in effect, the East Germans. The Soviet authorities had been assigned the job of running all rail and canal operations in Berlin as a single unit. They saw no reason to invest significant money in West Berlin projects.
For Americans, the closest U.S. equivalent of the Berlin S-bahn is the Chicago Metra Electric lines (ex-Illinois Central Electric) on the South Side. For Canadians, the closest equivalent is the Montreal Canadian National Railways electric suburban line from Central Station underneath Mount Royal. These only serve narrow corridors, however. Nothing in the world matched the Berlin S-bahn in its glory days from the late 1920's to 1936, in terms of its combination of service levels and metropolitan coverage evolved on an existing railway system (as distinct from purpose-built rapid transit lines like the London Underground or the New York City subways).
Beneath the stone viaduct, an older Berlin of slow moving canal boats and floating homes continued a lifestyle which would have been recognized by the Prussian kings. This scene is on the edge of the Tiergarten.
Continue on the tour. Weitermachen!