Defining Rapture

* See also Rapture_City_Layout
* See also Rapture_Cityscape
* See also Rapture_Economy
* See also Rapture Society
* See also New Rapture
* See also Initial_World_Composition (by MMORPG)
"The Rapture" - The Rapture of the Church is the event where God “snatches away” all believers from the Earth to make way for His righteous Judgement to be made upon the Earth during the Tribulation.
A Less Religious Connotation : Ryan foresaw a possible coming nuclear war, which might bring catastrophe to The Surface World, and HIS Rapture was to be a Refuge from that. It was also to be a place made safe from the growing tyranny of Socialism, and the increasing amounts of Freedom-stealing already afflicting the World.
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Estimates on Rapture's Size : 
The Game never declares Rapture's population. 
It would need to have some substantial population to represent being 'a city'. How large a population to approach the City vision shown ? It being sufficiently large - even when quite a bit less than what the game's 'WOW' artistry implies. We are shown a Manhattan type cityscape.
20,000 people is the Novels estimated initial size which Rapture was build for. ( Was that population number ever reached ?? Still Vague ... ) It would also be built with the capacity to expand in its future. 
How much could THAT population size increase from births within Rapture in a period of near a decade ("Baby Boom" Rapture ?) and beyond ? Eventually, Rapture could be expected to have as many as 40000 people -- You would expect increases from birth-added population ( between the story's 1946-1958 ).
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How Big Should MMORPG Game Rapture Population Be ? :
How many people might remain in New Rapture ? Are there all that many left when Jack and later Delta went thru ??
Consider that we only walked thru a very small part of the city, and we saw many inhabitants around in what little we did go through ... So many Lights are seen in the buildings 'still on'. Consider that in BS1 we likely were 'walked' through many un-stable un-controlled (largely un-populated) areas by Fontaine so to get Jack through to Ryan. 
By the time of the MMORPG, how many people remaining are actually Splicers ? Would Non-Splicers survive ? Or perhaps, being a Non-Splicer contributed a far better chance of survival ? 
How big can the population be for the Game when we represent the Solo game scene sampling ( What could be sufficiently represented in a MMORPG Server - NPCs and Players ) ? Many parts of Rapture would be repetitive, and these need not all be fully represented.
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Residences - Estimate :
Given: a 10 X 10 foot residential area per person, 1 worker = Family of 4 == 400 sq ft minimum residence ( upscale/upclass would be higher ) Barracks-like single non-family space would probably be similar.
Example Estimate - a typical apartment 'court' (roughly 75 feet X 75 feet X 50 feet tall)
4 U shaped floors, each of 3 side X 3 units of 4-person(400 sq ft) = 144 residents (includes a concierge)
20000/144 = ~138 such apartment blocks would have to exist
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For 'High-rise' residence buildings of something like 20 stories of 75 X 75 feet, high density (cramped 4 person apartments)
20 X 20 ft each of 8 4-person units per floor, and that times 15 residence floors = 480 residents
20000/480 = is roughly 41.5 such buildings - If all of that type
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Some residences may be more linearly laid out along 'Streets' ( the old common style/pattern of having a business downstairs and the residence upstairs, on both sides of the street ) This would have a somewhat lower density.
This pattern would be mixing residences with commercial, so would be diluting the capacity.
With the same minimum per-person sizing for both residence and commercial, and only the bi-level pattern, a 150 foot stretch would hold 40 people or 1400 per mile of 'Street'.
20000/1400 = ~ 14.25 miles of 'street' of that pattern. Adding an extra floor (3rd) would double residential capacity and thus require about 7 miles total. With the extent of my Rapture map being a span of about 3 miles, there is plenty of space for some spans of these kinds of 'Streets'.
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Upscale/Upclass Apartments increase in per-human size allocations geometrically with the affluence level.
With X thousand of 'white collar' workers and Y hundreds of management personnel ( plus a few handfulls of 'Movers and Shakers' ) the total residency space will be somewhat larger, but it is a starting estimate.
Upscaling would likely increase area per-person to 200 sq ft and 400 sq ft for significant numbers of 'ordinary' citizens.
Remember, this reflects Rapture as originally planned/built, so it is the basis of "what's out there", and not what is in the currently livable reclaimed New Rapture areas. More than a little of the original City was possibly wrecked beyond use.
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Workspace :
Industrial plants can often have relatively few workers (with lots of automation) within huge installations. Such operations do also have office staff and other personnel.
Desk bound Office workers personal areas may be small, but there can be large records/conference additions.
Manufacturing space per-man can vary quite alot - especially if bulk goods are warehoused/inventoried.
Farms/Fisheries - large areas for containing the plants/animals with fairly low personnel density.
The Population of Rapture would have a large segment of 'Small' businesses and manufacture as the total population does not warrant extensive Mass Production.
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NOT : For All of This, Rapture's theoretical size is limited by how much might be 'paid for' within plausibility. Rapture was not to be quite as FANTASY as Columbia in Infinite BS was ( The Population there was never specified either ).
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Transportation :
Someone once calculated that fully 1/3rd of all Urban Land Use is for Transportation ( If you add up airports/RR stations/tracks/yards/docks, roads/parking garages, hallways, even sidewalks/driveways -- You can see that figure seems quite possible ).   Rapture had the Bathyspheres, the AE Train system, Trolleys, Viaducts to interconnect parts of the City and the areas lying outside, and add all the walkways inside.
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How much operational/used space is there outside the 'pressure structure' ?? We saw some in BS2, when walking about in the sea. Similar space would be accessible in this Game, as only a small part of 'The Outside'.
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Tall or not Too Tall ? - That is the Question :
Looking at some views of cityscape buildings in BS2, there are many of about 20 stories, some at 30-35 stories and a very few taller 40+ stories ? The buildings with the apparent Radio Tower might not need it ( radio waves actually go thru water VERY poorly - so that use would be illogical ), and that one shape which had a very tall spike ontop likewise.
That 'Chrysler'-like building seen might be more a caricature, and nowhere near as big as the original was at 1000+ feet and 77+ floors.
400 feet of building with 40 floors might be a sufficient 'highest' - as Ryan built one perhaps 'for show'. That height, with at least 200 feet of water above it (to avoid icebergs) increases a lower (bottom) floor level pressure to more than I originally would prefer ( originally 200 ft buildings and + 200 ft above )
Pressure at 600 feet Ocean depth is ~275 psi or ~18.6 atm. That is alot of force/pressure on those huge Windows we see ( Scotty must've gone back even further in time to give them that formula for transparent aluminium ... ). The Novel book ("BioShock : Rapture") mentioned some expensive new materials to withstand such pressure. The building walls/ceilings/floors likewise would have to be quite strong - though they could be alot thicker/bulky than the window glass.
(( Hoover Dam is 726 feet tall and has a 660 foot thick concrete base ( it was built to last for 1000 years ) -- Equivalent pressure has to be held back with some few feet of Rapture's walls, and in only mere inches by the windows. ))
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