Revised & Updated; Dec. 15. 2024 / Originally Published: June 17, 2021
by Bricklyn Eagle Editor Walt Brickman
- Part 1: What is Hidden by The Great Wall
- Part 2: What is NOT Hidden by The Great Wall
- Part 3: The Great Wall’s Origins
- Part 4: Walled Villages & Cities in Medieval Times
- Part 5: Tunnels through The Great Wall of Bricklyn
- Part 6: Can The Great Wall Help Meet Bricklyn’s Housing Needs?
- Part 7: Additional Resources for Understanding The Great Wall
One of the most puzzling aspects of Bricklyn to Outlanders (i.e.,humans) is the fact that only about one-quarter of the Realm of Bricklyn can be seen by them when they visit Bricklyn. The remainder is blocked from view by the Great Wall of Bricklyn.
What the Great Wall Means for Outlanders
What is hidden by the Great Wall?
Most significantly, most of South Bricklyn (including the airport; the regional high school; and the medical center) and all of Bricklyn Junction, including its historic downtown.
A substantial portion of the city of Bricklyn itself — including most residential districts — is also shielded by the Wall from the view of Outland visitors.
What is NOT hidden by the Great Wall and visible to Outlanders?
- Downtown Bricklyn (including government offices; the courthouse; city hall; the theater; the natural history museum; the arboretum; and the central railroad station);
- Bricklyn Harbor and its ferry docks;
- Lake Bricklyn;
- The Excchange Building, home to the Realm of Bricklyn public library;
- The South Bricklyn railyards;
- Le Bricklyn Hotel and L’Étoile du Nord restaurant;
- South Bricklyn’s rapidly developing North Street district;
- The Bricklyn Loop monorail;
- Swiftbrick Ball Field;
- Bricklyn’s Eastside and Northside neighborhoods.
The Great Wall of Bricklyn & Other Walled Cities
Portions of the Great Wall of Bricklyn have strange, intricate patterns and designs.
The Great Wall’s Origins
No one in Bricklyn, including historians and scientists, can fully explain the origins of these patterns and designs, or how the Great Wall acts to block Outlanders’ view of those portions of the Realm outside the Great Wall.
According to Bricklyn’s Chief Historian, Winifred Tiler Jackson:
“The Great Wall was constructed, according to plastic residue dating, in the first half of the fifth century BCE by some ancient people, perhaps castaways in the ‘New World,’ but with remarkable skills that we are only now beginning to understand.
“Hidden in a corner of present day Vermont, The Great Wall ‘s presence kept the area now known as Bricklyn unseen by humans — undoubtedly a protective blessing. These ancient peoples, for reasons not yet known to historians, disappeared from the area by the second century BCE.
“It was not until the early 18th century that a shipload of LEGO people voyaged to colonial America in search of the remarkable wall that they had heard about from long-time legends.
“At least a dozen of these Bricklynites (then called ‘Little Vermonters’) served with distinction as spies with Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys. The Bricklynites’ extremely small size — and their courage — proved to be invaluable assets to the American cause.
“Remarkably, within two years of arriving they had found The Great Wall, and began building the settlement they called Bricklyn, largely within the protective confines of the Wall. This was, of course, three centuries before the great emigration of LEGO peoples from Denmark in the 1970s and ’80s, including a wave of migrants who sought a new home in the cities of Bricklyn, South Bricklyn, and Bricklyn, Junction, Vermont.”
Walled Villages & Cities in Medieval Times
Historian Jackson has also researched walled villages in other Inland realms, and considers it likely that ancestors of many Bricklyn families would have lived in walled realms like those shown in the renderings below during Europe’s “Middle Ages.”
Visualizations above of walled cities ancestors of today’s LEGO people might have looked like.Images generated by Dall E-3 AI, based on data inputs from Bricklyn Historian W.T. Jackson.
Historian Jackson also asked us to link to the following two videos. The first briefly explores Europe’s heritage of defensive city walls, and how they helped define the shape of cities. The second video provides quite fascinating aerial views of 15 walled cities — though Jackson recommends watching the second video with the sound off, as she found the narrator’s “voice” quite irritating!
Tunnels through the Great Wall of Bricklyn
Even though the Great Wall of Bricklyn remains hidden from Outlanders, Bricklynites easily navigate through the Wall using any of eighteen short tunnels. Eleven are solely for pedestrians and cyclists, while three serve Brick Rail freight and passenger trains. and the final four are for cars, buses, and trucks..
Most of the these passages connect areas in downtown Bricklyn and its near downtown neighborhoods with adjoining parts of South Bricklyn or Bricklyn Junction. Two of the bike/ped tunnels and one of the rail tunnels are shown below. Photos by Bricklyn Eagle staff photographer Ann Tiler Anderson, with assistance from Dall E-3 AI.
Drawing Inspiration from The Great Wall to Help Meet Bricklyn’s Housing Needs
Bricklyn’s Great Wall Street — which runs along portions of the Great Wall — is the focus of new zoning provisions which will allow for dense new high-rise buildings on a number of lots facing the Great Wall.
The Bricklyn Planning Commission felt that allowing taller buildings along the east side of Great Wall Street would better match the height and scale of the Great Wall (which parallels the west side of the street) while also helping address housing shortages within the Realm.
Bricklyn Planning Director Tim Brickedy and his staff drafted the necessary zoning changes and then shepherded them through the Federal Council, which adopted them just this past September.
Two residential projects are already on the drawing board, once again teaming Dunk Them Donuts CEO Dave Broffman with Bricklyn architect Moshi Saftbrick.
See several of Saftbrick’s initial renderings.
“The new buildings,” Saftbrick told The Bricklyn Eagle, “would respond to the chiseled, layered look of the ancient Great Wall, while bringing to Bricklyn a cleaner, contemporary design.”
Historian W.T. Jackson adds this historical footnote: “In the above photo rendering, note the ‘Star of David’ motif on the section of the ancient Wall located at the corner of Lower North Street and Great Wall Street. I’m not alone in wondering whether this could reflect the presence in ancient Bricklyn of one of the ‘lost tribes’ of Israel. Plastic residue dating of this part of the Wall has proven inconclusive.” Illustrations by Dall E-3 AI based on prompts by Moshi Saftbrick and his team.
Renderings by Dall E-3 AI based on prompts provided by architect Moshi Saftbrick and his team.
Additional Resources for Understanding The Great Wall
For a closer look at the history of The Great Wall, see these remarks by Bricklyn Chief Historian Winifred Tiler Jackson.
For an interview with Bricklyn meteorologist Tiler Brickoski on climate differences between parts of Bricklyn inside and outside The Great Wall.
Below: nighttime view of portion of Bricklyn Jct., on a snowy, Winter night. The fact that there’s snow on the ground makes clear that the we are OUTSIDE the Great Wall of Bricklyn. Portions of the Realm of Bricklyn OUTSIDE the Wall are subject to the same weather as in Burlington, Vermont.
In contrast, those areas INSIDE the Wall are located in the basement of an Outlander, where it never snows or rains! For more on weather phenomena in Bricklyn, see the interview with meteorologist Tiler Brickoski linked to above. — Photo by Bricklyn Eagle photographer Ann Tiler Anderson, with assistance from Dall E-3 AI.
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