Moving a Piece of History
On Wednesday, September 20, 2000, a piece of history was moved from a storage space in Lowell, MA to its new home in Cambridge, MA. A four-ton section of the Berlin Wall owned by the EF Education Company was moved to their Cambridge headquarters located at One Education Street. The wall section, which stands approximately twelve feet high and four feet wide, was shipped to the U.S. and transported to a Lowell warehouse owned by the Sterling Corporation of Billerica. At the Lowell site, Toupin unloaded the section of wall, which was shipped on its side and placed it in Sterling's warehouse for temporary storage while the Cambridge site was being developed. On September 20th, the Cambridge site being complete, Toupin Rigging received the call from Sterling to relocate the wall section to its new home an ocean away from its origin. The wall mass was rolled onto one of Toupin's specialized air ride trailers and transported to the Cambridge site.
In Cambridge, the wall would first need to be placed upright as it was shipped lying on its side. Toupin Rigging foreman Don Beland along with workers Roland Bergeron and Dan Porter made this task look effortless with the use of a lifting jig and crane operated by Rick Marshal of Astro Crane Service. Once upright, the wall section was secured with rigging and precisely hoisted from the trailer to the foundation site outside EF headquarters. Once the wall was in place, a cylindrical top section was also craned into position completing the structure and giving New England a significant piece of history.
Through the efforts of EF Education, and the professional workmanship of Toupin Rigging Company and the Sterling Corporation, people in the Boston area can take a quick drive to view evidence of a now bygone era. Built in 1961, the Berlin Wall stood as a representation of the Cold War and the division of people and ideals. Today, this small section of wall displayed outside EF headquarters now stands as a monument to the fall of Soviet communism and the reunification of Germany.
