When Germany was reunified and the Berlin Wall dismantled between 1989 and 1990, most of the Wall, a much-hated symbol of Cold War oppression, was crushed and recycled to make new roads. Today, the former location of the Wall is marked either by a red line or a double row of cobblestones, with only a few vestiges left standing in Berlin as memorials. In addition, sizable segments (a three-foot-by-10-foot section weighs about three tons) of graffiti-laden pieces were either given away as gifts or auctioned off by the German state. Many of these segments ended up in notable locations within the U.S., including CIA Headquarters in Langley, Va., the U.S. State Department, both the George Bush and Ronald Reagan presidential libraries (located in Texas and California, respectively), and the Microsoft Art Collection.
One such segment, however, was bought by Robert Snow, former owner of downtown Las Vegas' Main Street Station casino, and is now housed in a far less salubrious location, namely the back of the urinal in the men's restroom off the main casino. This section of the infamous Wall was an interesting addition to the Victorian-style casino's already eclectic collection of antiques and artifacts, which includes "Buffalo" Bill Cody's private rail car, a fireplace from a Scottish castle, and some 18th century Belgian street lamps (there was also a ring where the Australian gambling game two-up was played; it's since been removed). The men's latrine seemed to Snow to be the most appropriate place to display the chunk of the wall.
For additional photographs and information about other exotic urinals around the world, visit www.urinal.net, which lists the Main Street Station facilities among the world's Top 100. They didn't make it into the Top 10, however, which features, among others, the men's room at the Taj Mahal, the urinal in the International Space Station, artist Clark Sorensen's "Nature's Call" series (which includes latrines in the form of lillies, orchids, and sea shells), and even a women's urinal (located in a Dairy Queen in Port Charlotte, Fl.).
