The most unexpected thing I’ve learned about Montreal is that the city, at one time, had a wall that separated itself from the outside. Because I traveled to Berlin last December, images of the fragmented Berlin Wall were fresh in my mind. I couldn’t help wondering whether there were similarities between these two walls – both built to keep out the “Other”. During our walking tour of Old Montreal, we saw an area where their Wall once stood. Only rocks embedded in a structure roughly eighteen inches in height remains. This original foundation is capped with modern stone slabs with sleek lines; its previous purpose as well as its height seemingly truncated by more contemporary materials and ideas.
