West Berlin was a city that existed between 1949 and 1990 as a political enclave surrounded by East Berlin and East Germany. It was 100 miles (161 kilometres) east of the Inner German border and only accessible by land from West Germany by narrow rail and highway corridors. It consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors established in 1945 and shared economic, political, legal, and sporting systems with West Germany, but was not de jure part of it. It had a special and unique legal status because its administration was formally conducted by the Western Allies. East Berlin, occupied and administered by the Soviet Union, was the capital of East Germany. The Berlin Wall, built in 1961, physically divided East and West Berlin until it fell in 1989.