When the Berlin Wall was built with a few railway cars and a lot of barbed wire in August 1961, no one could have foreseen its rise and fall. In this two-hour special, HISTORY uses computer imagery to reconstruct how the wall grew from a mere and far-from-mighty obstacle to seven concentric walls with ditches, fences, signal wires, tank-traps and a flood-lit death strip patrolled by half-starved dogs - a nearly impenetrable barrier with a 96-mile circumference, 245 bunkers and 302 watchtowers. The Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall gets firsthand accounts from the people who tried to escape this "Wall of Death" by any means possible, including tunnels, hot air balloons, wind surfing boats, bi-planes and a cable railway. Additional interviews with border guards, security officials who designed the wall and Stasi men who protected it, politicians, historians and journalists help breathe life into this infamous border.