On March 1 , 1984 , a handful of people started walking from Point Conception . The participants continued through Arizona , New Mexico , Texas , then the Deep South , picking up a few people along the way . Some walked for a few hours , others for a few days or weeks , and a smaller number for several months . By the time the project reached Washington , D.C. in November 1984 , the number of core walkers was up to seven , with several other full-timers joining by the time they entered New York City . Along the way , participants met hundreds of people , government officials , and religious leaders , including representatives of President Reagan at the White House and governors . They also met with representatives of the Soviet , Polish , and East German embassies in Washington , D.C. , to lobby them for visas to walk . They collected letters , poems , drawings , and other messages of peace from people to distribute to people beyond the Berlin Wall . Members flew to Dublin , Ireland , in January 1985 and walked through Great Britain , France , Belgium , and the former West Germany , meeting political and religious leaders and everyday folks . Several hundred people walked them into Aachen , Germany , in a welcome organized by local Green Party members . They were denied entrance into East Germany in June 1985 and settled in an old mill house in a border town to figure out a plan . A few weeks later , they walked to Vienna , Austria , then took a train to Budapest and some other cities in Hungary as part of a tour organized by the government Hungarian Peace Committee . They were turned down again for visas to fly to Moscow . Eventually , several members took a train to Moscow from Geneva , Switzerland , following the November 1985 Geneva Summit between Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev . They met with members of the Soviet Peace Committee and others , and distributed letters and drawings
Geneva Summit
Geneva Summit (1985)
Walk of the People – A Pilgrimage for Life