So standing at the wall in 1969, I predicted to a friend … that there was a 50% chance that the future longevity of the wall would be between 2 2/3 years and 24 years. …But 20 years later, I called my friend … “Well, turn on your TV because Tom Brokaw is at the wall now, and they are tearing it down.”

But if you took a poll on Judgment Day of everyone who ever visited the Wall, it would likely be skewed to the year 1989 when it actually started to be torn, and people came out of the woodwork to dance on top of it, for there were many thousands who did so, while it was just onezie twozies in all the years leading up to that celebratory moment.