CARLATA BRADLEY

On February 10, 1962, American spy pilot Francis Gary Powers 
was released by the Soviets in exchange for Soviet Colonel
Rudolf Abel, a senior KGB spy who was caught in the United
States five years earlier.

The German bridge where Rudolf Abel, top left, and Gary Powers.

A bird’s-eye view of Germany’s Glienicke Bridge, a crossing
the Soviet Union and the United States used to exchange captured spies during the Cold War.

CARLATA BRADLEY

 
On this day in 1962, the Soviet Union exchanged captured American U2 pilot Francis Gary Powers (seated) for the Soviet KGB spy Rudolph Ivanovich Abel (right) being held by the U.S. 

Francis Gary Powers and a U2 recon aircraft .

The Glienicke bridge just after the Powers swap.