In the fall of 1990, the Berlin Wall came down, thus unifying Germany into one nation — and marking the end of the Cold War. One year following the fall of the Iron Curtain, U.S. President George Bush and Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev signed the START treaty, which stated that both nations would agree to dismantle all nuclear weapons. How do these events half way around the world effect U.S. builders of boats and barges? Significantly, as it turns out. It appears that the fall in nuclear submarine production has given rise to one of the country’s fast growing barge building companies. The middle to late 1980s was a watershed of sorts for the U.S. shipbuilding industry.