The record
Where the Newseum's collection stood first: a dozen segments on an elevated park built on an abandoned motorway ramp.
Freedom Park is a two-block elevated linear park in Rosslyn, built on a concrete structure originally thrown up for a motorway overpass that was never finished. It opened in 1996 as a joint venture with the Newseum and the Freedom Forum Journalists Memorial, and it was dedicated to the idea of freedom in a fairly literal way: a dozen Berlin Wall segments, a door from a cell that held Martin Luther King, stones from the Warsaw ghetto, and a spiral of dichroic glass carrying the names of reporters killed at work.
This record completes a chain the catalogue can now follow end to end. The segments came here in 1996; most went across the Potomac when the Newseum moved to Pennsylvania Avenue; the Newseum closed on the last day of 2019 and its eight sections and the guard tower went into storage in Maryland. Three addresses, one collection, thirty years. The outdoor exhibit that remained in Rosslyn was reported in 2015 as becoming a children's play area.
How did it get here?
Originally about a dozen segments, erected when the park opened in 1996 under the Freedom Forum. Most were moved to the Newseum in Washington.
Sources
Listed by the Berlin Wall Archive as #17.
Freedom Park (Arlington, Virginia) — Wikipedia ↗
The park's 1996 founding as a joint venture with the Newseum and the Journalists Memorial, the dozen wall segments, and the other objects displayed.
General referenceSource accessed 2026-09-17
Outdoor Berlin Wall exhibit in Rosslyn to become children's play area — ARLnow ↗
The 2015 report that the outdoor Berlin Wall exhibit was to be replaced by a children's play area.
Press reportSource accessed 2026-09-17
Berlin Wall Archive ↗
The source lists this place as a Berlin Wall location. Coordinates, where supplied, are source-reported and may represent a general area. This is not independent verification of authenticity, current presence, or public access.
Inventory listingSource accessed 2026-09-17 · Source record 17
Source-reported segments: 2. This is not a separately verified count.
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