Gotham City
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Gotham City is a fictional city of the United States of America in the DC Comics universe where Batman and most of his related characters live. It was created by France Herron and Jack Kirby in Wow Comics #1 and retconed as the setting of the adventures of Batman in Detective Comics #48.
The name is a reference to New York City, which has always been called Gotham City and was the original setting of Batman's adventures. The current design of Gotham City is modeled after New York City with analogues of Central Park, Broadway, the Statue of Liberty, the Bronx and Harlem.
Longtime DC Comics writer and Batman editor Dennis O'Neil also said figuratively that Metropolis is New York above 14th Street on a warm spring day, and that Gotham City is New York below 14th Street on a cold, rainy autumn night.[citation needed] Mirroring Manhattan, both Gotham and Metropolis, have their main districts located in long islands surounded by rivers with analogies to Broadway, Central Park and other locations of the big apple. However, New York City does exist as a separate city from Metropolis and Gotham City within the DC Comics universe; the Justice Society of America, for example, is based there.
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[edit] History
[edit] Pre-Crisis
According to Detective Comics #468, in 1624 European settlers bought the site from the Algonquian Indians for $24 in trinkets.
[edit] Post-Crisis
In Shadowpact #5, writen by Bill Willingham in 2006, Gotham's occult heritage is established, revealing that a mystical being that now calls himself Doctor Gotham has slept for 40,000 years beneath the Gotham City islands. Strega, a sorceress at its service, explains that the dark and often cursed city has been influenced by the being.
The history of Gotham City was first writen in Swamp Thing 53 (October, 1986) by Alan Moore and then Expanded upon. It is founded in 1635 with the name of Port Adolphus (in memory of general Gustavo Adolphus) by Jon Logerquist, a Norway mercenary, along with some pilgrims running away from religious wars in Europe. In 1674 the British took over Port Adolphus and General Adam Howe, the first gobernor, changed its name to Gotham City.
During the American Revolution, Gotham city was served as a major battle site. In 1779, during the battle between British rebels, business man Darius Wayne saves a rebel whose plans were revealed to the British spies. As a result, Wayne is apprehended and sentenced to be hanged, but he is saved as the rebels took the city. As retribution to his heroism, several lands of the county were given to him, which eventually become the origin of the Wayne fortune, which eventually becomes Wayne Enterprises one of the most influential business companies of the city and the world.
Gotham City has probbably the worst history corruption and crime ratigns of the country. As revealed in storylines like Batman: Year One, when Batman starts his career as a vigilante, the police and the city hall are basically run by Carmine Falcone, the mob and people like beyond corrupt Counsil Chairman Rupert Thorne. This situation ends as Batman, District Attourney Harvey Dent, and a group of cops lead by police Captain James Gordon clean up the city and later a new breed of super criminals lead by Two-Face takes over the underworld, which eventually becomes ruled by the Penguin, Scarface and the Ventriloquist, and Black Mask, however certain ethnic mobs remain powerful.
In recent years, in the Cataclism story arc, Gotham City was hit by an unlikely 7.6 earthquake. Among the few buildings that still stand are all of the Wayne Enterprises buildings, due to Bruce Wayne preventive measueres. In Road to No Man's Land, after the accident, the city is so devastated and the federal government's faith in it and its people is so little that, despite Bruce Wayne's efforts, the city is evacuated, isolated, cut off from the national budget and the people who choose to reamin there is abandoned.
In No Man's Land the city is divided in areas ruled by gangs and warlords (most of them supervillains), and administrated with a feudal system. Some of the gangs, however, afiliated to Batman, the Huntress, Lex Luthor and the remains of the Gotham City Police Department, and towards the end most of the city is controled by these forces. The city is rebuilt and reintregrated to the United States thanks to Lex Luthor's leagal and ilegal influence and means, who keeps a large influence in the city until he is tricked into selling all his Lexcorp business to Wayne Enterprises, as revealed in Superman/Batman #6. The architecture of the city sufferes some drastic changes due to these events.
[edit] Location
The exact location of Gotham City in the United States has never been openly clarified. Through Batman titles several posibilities of the location of the city have been hinted as part of the New York or New Jersey states. Sometimes there have even been references to a Gotham state. However, the one thing clear is that it is south to New York City and north to Metropolis.
The term Gotham City has historically been tied to New York City, until the big apple is featured again DC Comics Universe as it really is in the real world, as a separate entity.
[edit] Geography
Gotham City occupies three large and a some small islands between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gotham River and some of the mainland along it.
[edit] South Gotham Island
- Old Gotham: It's the historical center of the city, characterized by its twisted streets and crowded buildings. It dates from the original Dutch settlement of the 17th century, where the city is born. It is surounded by more important neiborhoods, it is still very active. The Riverside Lounge is located there, it is a well-known dockworkers' diner that used to be a prime hangout for smugglers in the Prohibition era and even after World War II. It is also the location of the Clocktower a notorious building, headquarters of Oracle in Gotham City.
It is located at the center of the south border of the South Island, south to the Fashion district, west to Neville and east of Chinatown. It faces Tricorner Island, Paris Island and the Gotham Harbor. - East End: A zone that expanded east to Old Gotham to feature some of the most important buildings of the city.
- Cathedral Square: It includes the Gotham Cathedral the center of the Catholic life in the city and the most visually dominating feature of the East End, and one of the first buildings to take on the "Gotham Style".
- Port Adams: It's located at the very east tip border of the South Island, north to the Financial District, south to Fashion District, east to Neville.
- Neville or City Hall District: It features the Gotham City Hall, the Gotham Superior Courthouse, the Gotham City Police Department Central Precinct, a veritable fortress; Finnigan's, a bar GCPD officers attend; and some ofice buildings including the Wayne Tower, the major skyline landmark of this area of the East End. It is renamed Nellive as a successful attempt to disassociate it from the Westst End, since most of the area is known for its poverty and crime.
It's located at the south east of the South Island, south to Fashion District and the Grant Park, east to Old Gotham, and west to Port Adams and the Financial District. - Financial District: Located to the South of the Cathedral Square, features the Gotham Stock Exchange and the Buford Building, as well as skyscrapers like the Von Gruenwald Tower and Port Adams Plaza. Notably, a large but somewhat aging mall inhabits a Victorian-era Crystal Palace very near the Financial District. It also features the awarded Pamela's Cafe, the "Best Breakfast in Gotham City".
It is located at the south east border the South Island, south to Neville facing The Rip and Blackgate Island.
- Chinatown: An area where the Asian inmigrants concentrate along centuries. Its main street is Gate Street and its tallest building is the Kyoto Towers. It includes the One Port Trinity Place and right along the waterfront is the large arrowhead-shaped Gotham Port Authority, which looks like an immense temple.
One of the most attractice locations is the The Red Lotus Restaurant, the finest Oriental gourmet establishment in the city, with a floor devoted to Chinese cuisine, another to Thai, another to Vietnamese, and another to Japanese. Near the edge is the Vauxhall Opera Shell & Indoor Concert Center, home of the Gotham Opera. To its west are the Dixon Dock.
Chinatown is locate at the southwest border of the South Island, to the south of the Upper West Side and west to Old Gotham. - Upper West Side: A bad neighborhood located at the northwest end of the South Island. It includes Renfield Heights, a tremendous tenement complex that stretches for blocks and sprawls outwards and upwards in an unorganized smear. The Robinson Central Terminal for the subway and el system, and the Ranelagh Ferry are in this area.
It's located at the nort west border of the South Island, west to the Robinson Park and the Diamond District and north to Chinatown.- Battergate: Also known as "The War Zone", it is a notorious area on the Upper West Side due to crime. Police simply do not respond in emergencies to brutal crimes committed in there without impressive backup.
- Midtown: A "patchwork" area located at the east north side of the South Island. Theatre Row is in this area, rivalling New York's Broadway for its tremendous productions. The Iceberg Lounge: A Nightclub ran by the Penguin, is located in this area.
- The Fashion District is here as well, marked at the north end by the dockyards of Miller Harbor and at the south end by Grant Park. It is also east to the Robinson Park and the Diamond District.
- Grant Park: Sometimes referred as the South Island's "little brother" of Robinson Park on the center island.
- The Diamond District: A long time home of gem dealers and jewelry-makers although many high-rise apartments have been erected in the area as well. It is south to Robinson Park, west to Fashion District, north to Old Gotham, and east to the Upper West Side.
- Little Odessa: A place where immigrants from Eastern Europe have settled for decades. Dominated today by the Russian Mafia, Little Odessa is an almost ostentatiously quiet and insular community.
[edit] Tricorner Island
A triangular portion of land separated by a river at the southwest corner of the South Island. It features the Tricorner Naval Yard, decommissioned by the U. S. Navy in 1975. It is characterized by neighborhoods formed by portuary workers. The area is also known for its organized crime and police corruption. Police Commissioner James Gordon lives there.
[edit] Blackgate Island
The Blackgate Island is located at the south west of the South Gotham Island, is serves as location of the Blackgate Maximum Security Penitenciary. It is separated from yet another island between it an the South Gotham Island by a pass called The Rip.
[edit] Sullivan Island
[edit] Paris Island
[edit] Justice Island
It's where The Statue of Justice is located. The statue, also known as "Lady Gotham", is modeled loosely on the Statue of Liberty in New York. It varies in that the figure has a blindfold over its eyes, and a sword and scales in her outstretched hands.
[edit] Center Gotham Island
- Chelsea: The home of Gotham University, the Kane Planetarium and the Furst Memorial College of Architecture. Most of its nightlife is centered around Kingston Square, which includes bookstores, coffeeshops, nightclubs, bars, dance clubs and raves. It is located west to Robinson Park, south to Coventry, and east to Burnley Harbor.
- Burnley Harbor: Also known as "Little Bohemia" and nearby Chelsea is the arts community of Gotham, occupying cheap and large space since the warehouses and shipping facilities there were largely closed. It's located at the west border of the Center Island, east to Chelsea and Coventry.
- Robinson Park: The largest and greatest public park in Gotham City. It includes the Forum of the Twelve Caesars, the Robinson Park Reservoir, the old Johnson Landfill site, the Giella Gardens (a public botanical garden and private research facility) and the Finger Castle, operated as a historical museum by the Gotham Historical Society.
- Coventry: A residential neighborhood that used to be upscale until is recently flooded with South American immigrants in recent years, making race and class tensions extremely high in the area. The Gotham Zoo is there as well as the The Blue Heron, a five star gourmet restaurant for extremely wealthy people, decorated in 1920s flair and finery and most characteristic of Gotham's nightlife.
It is located in the middle at the north border of the Central Island, facing the Mercey Island, north to the Robinson Park, east to the Upper East Side. - Upper East Side:Consists of Manchester and Lyntown, formerly independent cities which recently absorbed into Gotham. It is also called "Little Italy", being the stronghold of Italian immigrants for over two centuries. In consecuence, it is the central location for Italian Mafia activity. It is Also home to single-family residences, chiefly for those working in the chemical industry which is also strong in the area. One of its most characteristic places is the Maroni's Ristorante Italiano, the most prestigious Italian restaurant, a 90 years old place operated by the Maroni mafiosi family. Some important buildings in the area are Monolith Square, The “C” Building, R.H. Kane Building, Von Gruenwold Tower and the Surch Complex. The Knights Dome Sporting Complex, Home of the Gotham Knights (AL baseball) is located at the east end of the island.
It occupies almost half the Center Island at the east side, east to Coventry and the Robinson Park.- Manchester
- Lyntown
[edit] Mercey Island
Private property of the eccentric Mercey family, the island is still largely covered in green fields. The only things of note on the island are the DiAngelo Sewage Treatment Plant and the Trigate Bridge, a three-way span that conects Gotham with the mainland in Sommerset. Both built after the city fights in court against the Merceys, who at that time refuse to sell. On the east end of the island is Mercey Manor. In the No Man's Land story arc, the Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane in located there.
[edit] North Gotham Island
- Burnley: A comunity comparable to Harlem, NY divided by the Grand Avenue, one of the artistic epicentres of the city. The Uptown Gotham style of jazz develops here in the 1930s. In the 50s and 60s the civil rights activist start their movement here. Currently, some degree segregation persists, African American people tend to live east of Grand Avenue while the Hispanic people tend to live on the west.
It ocupies the southwest quarter of the North Island and is located south to Otisburg and Newtown and east to Logerquist's Acres.- 'Bryanttown: An area in the middle of Burnley, characterized by the precense of the Bryant Chemical Works. In Year One is has started to dye slowly with two out of its three main factory areas closed.
- 'The Hill: Once a great inner city neighborhood, the Hill is now a horrible place of poverty, housing projects, and a lingering miasma of desperation and danger. At its center is a gated historical cemetery and to the south east is the Aparo Park. It is north west to both the North Island and Otisburg.
- Amusement Mile: The tourism area of the city with the best hotels.
- The Newton Fairgrounds: Home to many big events in Gotham City, as is the Boardwalk outside.
- Rogers Yacht Besin: Includes the Gotham City Yacht Club, and is place for the wealthy to have their nautic properties.
- The Newton Amusement Park: One of the main atactions of Gotham, it features roller coasters, wheels of fortune and tipical attractions of theme parks.
- Sheldon Park: (Actually named after Sheldon Morloff one of the main Batman artist) Home to many Gotham nightspots (trendy and otherwise), and the trolley car yards (currently being decommissioned and stripped for parts to use on the El). The barge docks are also in this area, huge cavernous buildings to house the large ships.
- Robbinsville: A very wealthy neighborhood with a colorful history because of its use by bootleggers during Prohibition. It is located at Cape Carmine at the very east of the island.
- Logerquist's Acres: Centuries ago, it is originally property of Jon Logerquist, a Norwegian famer in the nineteenth century and the city founder. His farm and most of his properties are burn by the British when he refuses to pay taxes.
- The Bowery: It's Gotham's worst neighborhood.
- Park Row: Today it is a slum and a cesspit, back in the twenties, it is a very elegant and desirable neighborhood and was a highly demanded real estate. The Crime Alley, the place where the Waynes are killed by Joe Chill, is located in that zone.
- Northern edge communities:
- Newtown: A largely residential zone where the Glendale Institute of Technology is located. It is south to the Amusement Mile, east to Scituate and north to both Burnley and Lgerquist's Acres.
- Otisburg: Residential zone. It's located east ot The Hill, west to Scituate and north to Burnley.
- Scituate: Home to nearly all of the major sporting arenas in Gotham City. It's located east to Otisburg, west to Newtown and north to Giordano Botanical Gardens.
- East River: Location of the St. Swithin's Trauma Center, the oldest continually operated hospital in Gotham City. It is very similar to the Hill.
- Gotham Square Gardens: home to the Gotham Blades (AHL hockey), the Gotham Guardsmen (NBA), and the Gotham Amazons (WNBA).
- Sommerset Stadium: Home of the Gotham Wildcats (NFL, known as the Gotham Goliaths until 1990), and the Gotham Monarchs (NL Baseball).
- Knights Stadium
- Giordano Botanical Gardens: It's located east to Otisburg, west to Newtown and north to Burnley.
- Other buildings: One Gotham Center
[edit] Mainland shoreline
Several important locations of Gotham City are located outside the island along the mainland shoreline.
- Bristol: A large township loceted on the eastern shore of the Gotham River, north of the city. It includes the The Mooney Bridge and Bristol Stadium, where the Gotham Knights once play.
- South Darby: Contains the Luxor Oil Refinery Complex, the auxiliary rail yards, a Wayne Chemicals Plant and the Archie Goodwin International Airport.
- Crest Hill: An isolated community of the estates of the very wealthy families of Gotham.
- Gotham Heights: A wide suburb where The Wayne Manor (and the Batcave), the Drake Manor and some of the older manors of the older fortunes in the city are located.
Among these manors, the Falcone Estate (first appearance in Batman: Dark Victory)was originally bought by Vincent Falcone. In Batman and the Monster Men, it serves as hideout for Sal Maroni when Carmine Falcone forces him to disappear temporarely and in Batman: Dark Victory, the palce is appointed for the the domiciliary arrest of Alberto Falcone. - Brentwood: A slightly more upper-class suburb, and home to the Brentwood Academy, a very private school.
- Sommerset: Located slightly north, west and south to Bristol, it extends to both sides of the Gotham River. It includes, the Victoria Place Research Centers, Gotham Light & Power plant, and Irving Grove, a little residential community near Dayton National Forest and the birthplace of Solomon Grundy, the Slaughter Swamp State Park, so named because it was a favored spot for mobsters to dispose of bodies during the 1940s and 1950s. Earlier post-Crisis stories place the the Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane in Sommerset.
[edit] Rivers, harbors and other accidents
- Gotham River: Separates the Gotham islands from the mainland. Its main bridge is the Robert H. Kane Memorial Bridge, which connects Bristow with the North Island. The Vincefinkel Bridge communicates the South Island with the mainland at the west while the Trigate Bridge communicates Somerset with the Mercey island, where it comunicates with the Center and North Islands. Other communication are the Novick Tunnel of the South Island, the Gotham Water District Tunnel of the Center Island, the old steam tunnel of the Mercey Island.
Among the railroad instalations that cross the river are the Peterson R. R. Tubes of the South Island and the Brown R. R. Tubes of the Center Island, which crossover to Somerset; and the Gotham City Underwater R. R. Tubes which communicate the North Island to the mainlane in Bristow.
The Mooney Bridge communicates two areas of mainland in Bristow as the Gotham River enters. - Sprang River: It divides the North Island from the Center Island and is devided at the west side by the Mercey Island. It has eight bridges across, four of them communicate Mercey Island with the North and Center Islands, the two at the east corner are called the Schartz Bypass and the other two (each at a different corner) are part of the Trigate Bridge. Out of the other four east to Mercey Island, tying the east ends, the Sprang Bridge is the most important.
- Finger River: Divides the South Island from the Center Island starting with the Miller Harbor at the east. It has nine bridges, one of them with the rail road, and the most important is the Aparo Expressway. The Robinson Park crosses over it.
- Miller Harbor: It's the entrance of the Finger River at the east a the east of the islands.
- Gotham Harbor: It's the Gotham River entrance at the soutth of the South Gotham Island.
[edit] Other Neighborhoods
This are the communities in Gotham City. They are suposed to be located at the aforementioned boroughts.
- Gotham Village
- Kubrik District
- Toxic Acres: Toxic waste dump
- The Cauldron: Where organized crime operates, it's dominated by the Irish mob.
[edit] Other buildings
These are other Gotham City buildings.
- Ace Chemical Plant and Monarch Playing Card Co.: Located next to each other. The first is the place where a criminal wearing the Red Hood costume falls into a chemical waste disposal and ends up deformed and becoming the Joker.
- Plant Factory: Batman's first battle with Poison Ivy.
- Gotham City Speedway
- Gotham City Coliseum
- Gotham County High School: Public school attended by Tim Drake.
- Gotham Square: Based on New York's Time Square
- Killinger's Department Store
- Falcone Penthouse: It first appears in Batman: Year One. It is fashioned in classic, Roman-like architecture style, it's the main residence of Carmine and the Falcone family and it is also from where he and later, his daughter Sofia, direct their business. The place is often robed by Catwoman, often coinciding with Batman's visits. It first appears in Batman: Year One.
- My Alibi: An underworld bar.
- The Stacked Deck: Nightclub for the criminal underworld
- Sully's: A bar GCPD officers attend. ome say it's the safest place in Gotham.
- The Rallstone Castle: An old, massive castle outside the city that belonged to the Rallstone family, which was once even richer than the Waynes due in part to nefarious activities like slave trafficking, bootlegging and shady land acquisitions. It is long abandoned after J. Thomas Rallstone passes away until Niccolai Tepes a.k.a. the Mad Monk acquires it to use it as residense and place for the murderous rituals of the Brotherhood. It first appears in Batman and the Mad Monk.
[edit] Weather
Gotham City is usually 0-20 degrees in the winter and around 70-80 in the summer.
[edit] Population
It's occupied by about 7.8 million people.
Most of Gotham City people are descendants of the British and Western Europeans that founded the city, and other people who moved from other United States cities, but thera are large segregated percentages of Irish, African, Italian, Asian, Jewish, Eastern European, Arab and Hispanic descendants that started arriving the XIX century and tend to live in communities, neighborhoods or ghettos of their own. The Hispanic population has been growing the most lately.
[edit] Religion
Due to immigration in the past decades, there is an enormous diversity of religious belief in England, as well as a growing percentage who have no religious affiliation. Levels of attendance in various denominations have begins to decline for the last ten years before Batman: Year One. Gotham today is largely a secular city.
Despite the low attendance, Christianity are still the most common religions. For a long time, Gotham's main population is Anglica Protestant, but avter the arrival of large percents of Irish, Itallian inmigrants and the increasing Hispanic population, Catholicism is also a big tendency (at least latent).
The Gotham Cathedral, the largest religious building in the city, is a Catholic church.
Several of the non Christian or Semitic churches are located in Chinatown.
[edit] Economy
The economy in Gotham City is very contrasting, whith incredibly wealthy people and a vast mayority in miserable conditions. With blue collar jobs become hard to get, the middle class lives in the suburbs while the rich lives mostly in the nort shore mainland.
Gotham City's production is lead by U.S. Steel, Gotham Steel, Wayne Steel and the Stockton Metalworks. Its shipping deals comes from the Atlantic Ocean, although the Gotham Railworks still moves a big amount of cargo through the switching lines.
The city is responsible for a grat deal of the technology development of the country. The leading firm WayneTech, with national firms S.T.A.R. Labs and LexCorp coming in a close second. Biotechnology and drug research is conducted at Drake Medical and Cornelius-Krieg. The aerospace work takes place just outside the city limits, to the north in Sommerset. LexCorp Aviation, Ferris and Wayne Aerospace are the lead in the field.
Among the communication companies Gotham Broadcasting Company (GBS) is runned by Alan Scott (secretly known as Green Lantern I).
[edit] Public functionaries
[edit] Gotham City in other media
[edit] References
- Most of the information in this article was taken from http://cobweb.scarymonsters.net/~corleyj/gaming/yearone/gotham.html, a synthesis of Daily Planet Guide to Gotham City, a game by West End Games (Honesdale, Pennsylvania, 2000), written by Matthew Brady and Dwight Williams, under license from DC Comics, which features an exploration of the Gotham City from Frank Miller's Batman: Year One and the stories by Jeph Loeb.
- Gotham City's article at en.Wikipedia. The original source of the history section of this article, it also has a list of references and external links to verify its content. The following DC Comics sources were researched by their editors first:
- Dennis O'Neil. "Destroyer". Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #27. New York: DC Comics, 1992.
- Eliot Brown. "Gotham City Skyline". Secret Files & Origins Guide to the DC Universe 2000. , 2000.
- Alan Grant. "The Last Arkham". Batman: Shadow of the Bat #1. New York: DC Comics, 1992.
- Jeph Loeb. Batman: The Long Halloween. New York: DC Comics, 1997.
- Frank Miller. Batman: Year One. New York: DC Comics, 1988.
- Grant Morrison. Arkham Asylum. New York: DC Comics, 1990.
[edit] External links
- Batman: Collected Issues of the Dark Knight - Gotham Map, an interactive map of Gotham City.
