Defensive Wall - Modern Era

Modern Era

Walls and fortified wall structures were still built in the modern era. They did not, however, have the original purpose of being a structure able to resist a prolonged siege or bombardment.

Berlin's city wall from the 1730s to the 1860s was partially made of wood. Its primary purpose was to enable the city to impose tolls on goods and, secondarily, also served to prevent the desertion of soldiers from the garrison in Berlin.

The Berlin Wall was a different form of wall, in that it did not exclusively serve the purpose of protection of an enclosed settlement. One of its purposes was to prevent the crossing of the Berlin border between the GDR and the West German exclave of west-Berlin.

The Nicosia Wall along the Green Line divides North and South Cyprus.

Defensive walls have been built in Korea along the De-militarised Zone.

In the 20th century and after, many enclaves Jewish settlements in Israel were and are surrounded by fortified walls, as are many parts of Belfast, Northern Ireland by the "peace lines".

Additionally, in some countries, different embassies may be grouped together in a single "embassy district," enclosed by a fortified complex with walls and towers — this usually occurs in regions where the embassies run a high risk of being target of attacks. An early example of such a compound was the Legation Quarter in Beijing in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Most of these "modern" city walls are made of steel and concrete. Vertical concrete plates are put together so as to allow the least space in between them, and are rooted firmly in the ground. The top of the wall is often protruding and beset with barbed wire in order to make climbing them more difficult. These walls are usually built in straight lines and covered by watchtowers at the corners. Double walls, i.e. two walls with an interstitial "zone of fire" (cf. the Berlin wall) are rare.

The only extant city walls in North America are the historic ones in Old Quebec City, Canada.