Checkpoint Charlie got its name from the American alphabet. (The others were Alpha and Brava... a, b, c). By 1962, this checkpoint was the only place at which foreigners visiting Berlin could cross from West to East and back again. Located in the Friedrichstadt neighborhood in the heart of Berlin, the checkpoint was the subject of many movies and appeared frequently in spy novels penned during the Cold War era.

For tourists there is now a replica of the original US military checkpoint shed and large photographs of US and Soviet Russian solders stand guard admitting people to their own sectors. The former wall is now delineated on the ground by a double row of cobblestones.