In 1980, as tensions rose quickly inside the shipyard following the sacking of crane operator Anna Walentynowicz, the man who would become the face of the opposition found himself locked outside the yard. Lech Wałęsa had been fired himself a few years previously for his opposition to the shipyard bosses and government and with events on the other side of the wall threatening to escalate quickly and jeopardise protests already planned by Wałęsa and his activist colleagues, Wałęsa scaled a shipyard wall to take control of the strike. This story has become the stuff of legend but the fact is Wałęsa really did scale a wall on ul. Robotnicza to get into the closed yard. The section of wall over which Wałęsa climbed was cut out and placed on display next to a section of the Berlin Wall between the shipyards and railway station where it proudly stood until it was destroyed by a car crashing into it. It has since been rebuilt and stands proudly outside of the headquarters of Solidarity a short walk from the shipyard gates.