Show City Columbia

* See also Columbia Construction
* See also INFINITE-BS_REDO
* See also Real_1893_Chicago_Exposition
* See also Infinite_Timeline_Problems
* See also Humorous_Corrected_InfiniteBS_Timeline
* See also Comstock
* See also Funky_Columbia_Machinery
'Columbia was 'paid for' to 'Show Off' American Knowhow and Inventiveness to the World.
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What Was Left For Columbia To Originally Be ? :
Looking at the REAL 1893 Columbian Exposition and its extensive/comprehensive architecture, presentations, displays and content from the US and across the World ( *** Just Image Search "World Columbian Exposition Chicago 1893" on your favorite search engine ), it all really does not leave all that much new for Floaty Columbia -- apart from the fact that it is Floating. 
Concentrating on THAT element would have been logical for the Game Story -- Particularly when it comes to other people (taxpayers) funding it. It also would be built within the (too) few timeline months game dates allowed ( those according to the games rather inept given story schedule ). 
The REAL Historic Ferris Wheel already took people high up into the sky. Having Columbia come and go from the fair, doing daylong tours of the Chicago/Lake environs would be a major demonstration/attraction -- Perhaps even having some Hotel accommodations onboard for people's extended stays. 
You might have had other Floaty vehicles ("Float Boats") to demonstrate an innovative 'possible' future era of "Float-Liners", and similar advances allowing other more mundane transport ( like a demonstration of bringing fresh fruit from California delivered by "Float-Cargo" -- and similar exploits ).
Show City "Columbia" ( at the Exposition ) would be rather smaller - as compared to Comstock's later Columbia (the enormosity seen in-game). 
Columbia's repeating/duplicating the same stuff on the ground as the Exposition, that would NOT be all that impressive. Maybe further decorations and exhibitys would be added for its later World Tour, as a presentative/sampling of 'modern' America -- Perhaps taking the parts of the closed Exposition ( apart from the foreign bits ) and eventually Float-ifying it to incorporate it all together ? 
That growth process might have been a nice story idea ( also to help explain HOW that chaotic monstrosity might have came to be - WITHOUT initially requiring some impossible amount of money/effort ). 
The reality still was : The "White City's" buildings, statues and decorations were mostly plaster ( Even the displayed 'Battleship' there was a mock-up built out of brick, cement and 'Staff' ).
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Did Floaty 'Barges' even exist yet ? Remember, the twaddle about the first "First Lady" 'zeppelin' supposedly being filled with hydrogen, and being torched/burnt/destroyed easily by those early ( supposedly non-violent ) Vox ? (( REALLY Wasn't THAT all merely for the writers to haphazardly include a reason why so many craft looked like lighter-than-air Zeppelins ??? When they need not have been ( actually with as 'real world' impractical/disasters that they still were ) ??? )) T
he gamemakers apparently had to keep more than a little pre-rewrite stuff which had been 'shown off' in too many game promotional Trailers, because if changing too much, Players would have screamed it "Wasn't the Same Game" ( It wasn't anyway ), and impacting sales. Such are a game company's mentality/motivation/actions.
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The game designers got rather derpy in their 'ideas'. 'It looked good' is NOT a valid excuse when World Building a game that is supposed to reflect Real World logic.
The Ferris Wheel was a thing that took people 'way up high', when they rarely did in their normal lives. Columbia was a fricken Flying City - so WHY would people want to go up in a Ferris Wheel then ???
Gamemakers glombed their brains onto an image from the Real_1893_Chicago_Exposition, which has the famously pictured First Real Ferris Wheel. But their brain cells did not warn them that the idea was already massively superseded by the other marvels seen in Columbia on a daily basis. Perhaps as it was so big the Players were expected to be able to recognize it from a distance, when other things 'not so much'. 
BTW, why is it 'all the way over there' when the entertainment venue is OVER HERE ???
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Original Show City Situation of Columbia :
Columbia was ORIGINALLY built as a exhibition for the 1893 Columbian Exposition. Would a "Show City" even have a very large population ?? - Apart from 'Actors' for the Exhibition ? ( ... Thus the games 1912 Columbia population was something which was apparently accumulated later when things started getting strange ).
We aren't really sure where various groups of population were later 'picked up' to become part of Columbia ( as a 'American Exceptionalism' the Actors in the exposition "Show City" probably would have been largely white, maybe with a smattering/token of Melting Pot "others". ) 
Would anyone build Tenements in a "Show City" (visible ones) ? Kind of stupid, wouldn't it be ? Eventually, some areas might be designated and converted for the post-1902 1902 - The year that Comstock took over Columbia - stealing it from the US Government. Founder's ( and their "well off'" supporter's ) servants/functionaries/subjects. Would this be enough people to have a sufficient 'underclass'/immigrant/labor-worker population to bother having a 'revolution' for ? A Police State we saw - No place to hide, and any violent agitators would be found and 'wiped out' easily.
It might have been interesting for the majority of the 'Lower Class' to have to live Under the Streets'Lower Class' forced to 'Live Under the Streets' in Columbia - with Founders in-game making a derisive joke of that 'lower' ..., forced out of the sight of 'their betters'.
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What was THE Original Flying Columbia ? : 
What it initially was for the 'Columbia' Exposition, and then likely little-modified upto the Time Comstock Seized it 1902.  
The REAL Exposition cost in total around $28 million ( $784 million today ).  With (as the games story goes) the Columbia Flying Show allegedly funded by the US Government (for the most part), it would be quite small.
Contrary Idea : Statue of Liberty was completed 1886 just 7 years before 1893, and the Federal Government ( the Statue being unpopular to the politicians there ) didn't even bother to provide the money to build its base ( $280,000 ) -- US private citizens HAD too do this.
NOTE - The US Government would ONLY have funded such a project if IT got access to ALL the technology involved.  ( Note - that the game really does NOT mention if this did NOT happen ).  Ditto for any industrialists ( which would be a more likely source of its funding ).
So how much would Show 'City' Columbia cost?   Hint - its fancy building superstructure wouldn't be BRICK or STONE -- rather of lathing, plaster, burlap fiber ( 'Staff' ), and chickenwire.  There would be Concrete and Wood for the decking.   We got no details of exactly HOW such a monstrosity 'flies' or as to structurally how that all worked and held together ( Engineering-wise, its all cow plop ).
This kind of thing ( this Big Floaty Project ) had never been done before ( certainly on this scale it was still experimental ), so it would no doubt cost a great deal more versus normal construction work.  Likely it was done with many corrections of failures and adjustments, as the various issues and problems were worked out.
Likely the project was LATE in completion ( even more late than the Exposition itself which had been originally planned to start in late 1892 ).
SO It would initially be far smaller that the game shown 'Columbia'.  Lets Contrive "the story" that multiple dimension's Columbias later 'glombed' (merged) together to make it larger ( Stealing those might include Comstock assassinating other Comstocks -- Perhaps some good story stuff there ... )
BTW, The original bit of Columbia would be quite flat - People get tired of climbing stairs 'for their own sake'.  We can have the 'Merged' version be more '3D' (In its layout) -- Even to allow that perverse overlap because of the disorders of 'Merging'.
Here are some expected elements such a MOVING City would have :
* Its Structure base ( girders, cement - you better have something sturdy to put engines and such on - those other cheap materials wouldn't stand up to that )
* The sidewalk and base platforms
* The buildings
* Being all tied together strongly to be able to move as a unit
Original 'Show' bits :
* Townhall historical exhibit
* Modern Residence Exhibit ( Look !!! Oooh ... Indoor Plumbing ... )
* Air Museum & Exhibit (Zeppelin things - but better)
* Tourist Souvenir & Gift Shop ( Voxophone tour disks and '3D' Stereoscopic pictures )
* American Product displays (some sponsors - 'the wonders of Steel' )
* Advanced Technology displayed (with a Floaty ride) 
* Promenade - with telescopes and a Talking Tour (Vox-o-phone PLAYERS)
* Moving sidewalk (this one actually goes someplace, unlike the 1893 one - It would ring Columbia)
* Theater Of The Air (good propaganda - aerial stunt show)
* Restaurant & Casino & Bar (aether liquor ?)
* Scenic Skyline (tour and scenic ride) something to 'WOW the Rubes' ( seriously not really all the efficient as a 'freight hauler' - you still have to get the stuff too/from the skyline )
* Landing ramp and Landing 'boats'(extra fare)
* the Bandstand
* Photographic Studio ( to show the people back home )
* Flying 'Barge' sightseeing around the Exposition and Chicago ??
* 'Cabins' for Tourists ( a small deluxe hotel )
* Public Restrooms with very modern accessories (in the First Class section)
* A Christopher Columbus (impersonator) tour guide
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Behind the Scenes :
* Actor/Crew Housing Residence/props
* Pilothouse
* Powerhouse Engine Room & fuel
* Crew Commissary
* Magic Floatyshit(tm) mechanisms (those blue Orb thingees all over)
* Controls and Power systems ( Something to do with the 'siphon' ? but that was BEFORE Elizabeth, no ? )
* Buildings and furnishings ( plaster and chickenwire - fake just like the real Exposition )
* Maneuvering engines and guidance, etc
* Utilities : water/lights/communications ( wires everywhere in those days - many uninsulated )
* Transportation - more connected 'roads' with a (flat) base street level ( to get rid of the stairs/steep ramps at least for main arteries )
* Lost & Found
* Security and Brig
* Firefighters (modern floating fire wagon)
* First Aid station
* Water Supply, with a new amazing 'fil-ter-ation' system
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Things A Later Comstock-Run/'Pirate' Columbia Had to Worry About :
* Paying for the cultic expansion and maintenance ( gotta 'keep em believing' or they turn on you ) --  Unbelievers were dealt with. 
* Supplies are required just to feed its expanded population ( and all other things to simply survive on ).  Luxuries (like toilet paper) for the 'Upper Crust' who could be the most trouble of all if they weren't bought off.  
* Obtaining 'Servitors' (Untermenschen) who toil and support 'their betters' - kidnappings and scams to  obtain them.
* Handling mistakes/accidents/misfortunes - the crashings of independently moving sections of the city - with lots of destruction/mayhem - That bad idea led to such being largely welded onto primary city.
* Health Impact of Hypoxia ( lack of oxygen at altitude ), Motion-Sickness Vomitosis ( from the whole thing  vibrating/swaying/turning ), Eye Damage - from altitudes greatly increased UV, and Coldness of the altitude.
* Fear of warships and big cannon (and planes) firing at them, unless they stay high enough ( really cold way up there ), and away from First World countries.
* Fuel use  ( Columbia doesn't move by magic, does it ?  Oh that's right ... ) Coal powered Steam engines ?   Or just more "Quantum makes it work 'cuz' ".
* Escaping Servitors(Serfs) ( easy paths with any resupply method ) --- OR for more fun, a Slave Rebellion.
* Population Replacements for people falling over the side ( and suicides and escapes and murders/executions )
We never did get a population figure for Comstock's Columbia ( the original 'Show City' place would be quite small ). Even with big chunks seen (later) floating in the distance, it still seems to be composed MOSTLY of Empty Air, rather than the living space required for any 'Town' sized (real) population.
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The Original "Show City" Columbia was a TOURIST BUSINESS OPERATION. People from across the country would go there and have their pictures taken with some dramatic real 'flying' background ( or possibly a fake one if the urban haze made real 'dramatic' backgrounds unavailable ).
Note- this probably WOULD NOT be a scene in the game Columbia's Battleship Bay as everyone in Columbia who could possibly have wanted such a picture WOULD ALREADY HAVE ONE ( Its been there for 20 years and the trapped population would have had their pictures for that long ). 
Now if there was a mandated money-grubbing Have Your Picture Taken With the Prophet --- OR ELSE!!!, THAT would fit in with the game's ignorant Faux-Society and Faux-Religion and Faux-Economy.
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At Many of the World's Fairs and Expositions, The Statues Were Plaster and Cement :
Much like the Buildings/Structures. Anything permanent is expensive and takes alot of time to build.
Normal-sized metal/stone statuary is expensive enough, but Massive statues ( and even just their bases ) are extremely expensive. The Gianourmous ones seen in Columbia are laughable in their immensity and their likely impossible cost. Perhaps it was a decision by the game developers to have simple huge terrain detail filler, rather than having more small fine detailed work -- Something which WOULD require alot more effort($$$) AND alot of aesthetics skill/artistry -- AND which, in the dumbed-down/Player-led-by-the-nose game, would not be looked at much at all by the Players as they hustled to the next gunbattle.
Again, where did all the 'storied' money come from to Pay for all this huge extravagant stuff in Columbia ??? It MOST CERTAINLY WAS NOT the US Government/US Taxpayer to foot the bill, and the weird religious theme likewise wouldn't fit that source. So alot of Columbia was added later ? How ? ( Just like for Columbia's massive expansion beyond a reasonably sized 1893 'Show City', which it originally SHOULD have ONLY been ).
Perhaps what we saw was Merged from many dimensions ???
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Columbia Would Have To Grow - Wouldn't It ?? :
It could hardly turn into the needed Dystopia/Fail-topia if it just remained a deteriorating small 'Show City' Exposition attraction.
The US Taxpayers only funded a 'Show City' originally. It would only have 'exhibit' samplings of parts of a 'modern' city - Containing the normal, most numerous/sizable ( housing, commercial, industry ) elements being present/displayed.
So other elements would have to be subsequently added to Columbia ( to contain a population which still can only be that of a 'town' ). Various distance scenes show Columbia being spread out, BUT you actually need to densely pack things together to fit any large numbers of people ( Hint - It is empty space between all those distant floaty bits ). When you spread things out too much, all you do is complicate its operating as a cohesive 'city'/town ( and ALSO create a rather cumbersome entity which is expected in the game to move about the world all together as one ). Being spread out meant that its transport systems had to be greatly extended. Bad, as you should not want to have people take half their day getting to/from work on that disjoint transport system shown in the game.
For the population's "lower orders" ( immigrants, minorities, worker/serfs ) THEIR part of the 'City' would be far less fancy/showy, and would be more appropriate cramped rats-nest tenements, and be all bare/iron-girdery/unfinished. No waste of neat stone sidewalks and walls for them, when simple metal mesh and wood planks suffices. You probably wouldn't have too many 'workers' living in something like 'shantytown', as any European immigrant or 'poor white trash' would revolt/leave. You also do NOT create/build a shoddy problematic "shantytown" intentionally -- as with the same effort you could provide more adequate housing. That Slum would NOT be able to 'grow on its own' out of thin air.
Consider that any intentional building requires a Floatyshit(tm) block of 'land' with all its mechanisms ( whatever they are -- never really shown ... ) before creating the lower-class quality structures upon it ( and all the materials that go into them -- Again, wherever that comes from, something that's never really shown ... ). This is NOT something that just happens when solid vacant ground is there in our world, and just needs to be occupied and built upon to come to exist.
New building WOULD be required as Columbia's population grew between mid 1905-1912. Before that the place was basically a traveling theater full of 'actors' showing off American Ideals as a 'Show City' - under US Government control/funding. Once Comstock seized Columbia, it had to support itself and that required adding all the additional elements for a viable city. 
The Comstock-era population being constituted of : various 'minority' (cattle) stock brought in as slave labor ( the prison inmates, and others(?) ), then there were the various 'White People' who were of "The South Will Rise Again" type, or were Pseudo-Christian Cultists that Comstock had attracted. The oddest group to explain are the European Immigrants ( like the Irish - the usual cliche ) who are publicly castigated in Columbia as inferior by the 'Founder' types. THEY simply would NOT go there if/when they knew of the Racist/Oppressive/Pseudo-Protestant-Cultist environment they would face, and how the floating city was being run. It is not like the Irish were escaping the Potato Famine, and there already was the rest of America where other Irish had found better homes. (( THAT is a HUGE gap in the logic of the game's bizarre narrative the writers have contrived/messed-up )). At least 7 years of population increase via children would also add in ( probably mostly The Untermenschen - They 'breed like rabbits' you know - and we ARE told so in the game ). 
The economy ( including more than a few amusement venues ) is presented as largely industrial/manufacturing/commercial ( with rather strangely oversized industrial facilities ). A city with such large industry HAS TO serve customers outside of its immediate area to be justified -- Which Columbia is never shown to have (some kind of explanation could easily have been fit into the story - If they cared at all). Otherwise there is no reason to have those huge regional-scale factories ( it is only there to FORCE the Class Warfare plot stuff from the initial game dystopia theme ). There also is the serious problem of where Columbia's raw materials (of ALL types) came from ( which is also NEVER explained, or shown ).
SO, how did this huge ornate/fancy illogical cityscape and its people came to be really is NOT adequately explained/justified, as one game reviewer commented : "It all seeming like merely a prop".
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 A "First Class Museum - Suitable for Ladies, Children and Gentlemen" ( seen in an old picture back in the Nickelodeon days ) :
Something you would see in Columbia. WHAT EXACTLY then is IN a Second and Third Class 'Museum' ??? Such sounds like what might be found in more unsavory oldie "Museums". Note - 'Museum' at one time was synonymous with 'Freak Show'. 
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Cotton Candy and Sawdust, and the Freak Show :
In Columbia, it feels like you (the Player) are living/participating in a scam. "Contrived" is the word I would use about this place, which doesn't really feel like People lived in it. People DON'T live in Amusement Parks.
Its just Scenery set up for some tenuous plotline. No Kudos to the artists, as anybody can create a "pretty looking desert" these days with existing '3D' Editing Tools ( Look on the Internet - It is chock full of stuff superior to this done by amateurs ).
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Paying For Columbia :
Federal Income Tax was blocked in Legislation in 1894. So it did not exist yet - actually not until WW1 did it go into sufficient operation. A Depression was already happening when Columbia was supposedly built so amazingly quickly. Most of the Federal Budget already was dedicated to existing projects.
SO where does all this Money come from that paid for the engineering development and then the building of even a 'Show City' Columbia. ever come from ? The gamewriters just 'pulled it out of thin air' for their 'story'. ( And proposing that such funding for a sudden project by some unknown whacko cult-leader Comstock -- THAT was 'pulling it out of their arse' ). 
Real World Battleships ( something of equivalent complexity ) were being built at the time which took YEARS to build, and even longer to plan and pay for them ( AND that was with an already well-understood and well-developed technology ).
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Issue : To BUILD something large it takes a great deal of Infrastructure - Being often as large as the thing being built - Those facilities often FIRST having to be purposely built (costing more $$$) to be able to build the final new LARGE thing. A Building Facility like THIS would thus have been needed in 1893 (or 1892/1891) to actually build 'Show_City_Columbia'. This here is State of Technology 1911. 
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Doesn't this look like Fink trying to build his OWN Lighthouse, once he saw the awesome one that was at Rapture ??
OR is this the first large scale test of the 'Floating Building' concept ( seriously there were too few years to develop all this AND BUILD the First Columbia for the Exposition without it being Wave_of_the_hand game fantasy ).   Imagine the problems they would have -- IT not just has to float, but also navigate, and stay upright, hold together, and support people living on it ( Maybe NOT that last one for the Exposition ).
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Office of the Future : Shown in Columbia for the 1893 Exposition
Typewriter
Electric Lights
Telephone
Still with BIG windows to illuminate during the day ( electrics were still quite dim )
(( If this was in Infinite BS, it would be as big as a Basketball Court ))
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Typical construction of a 'Worlds Fair' - CHEAP, BUILT FAST, MEANT TO LAST NO MORE THAN A YEAR.
Columbia would be built similar to this, with a limited expected lifespan and without endless CASH or construction time.Similar to the making of Infinite BS
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Show City - "MODERN" ... seeing the future and appropriating the technology isn't even required here.
Electric incandescent street lighting started in 1882 (arc lights in 1875)
Game 'Artists' just assemble images without thinking about the game context.
You don't want me to go into how illuminating gas is produced.
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Burning like that with it not under the chimney, half the Smoke will rise into the room. Created kinda like they were glued-on to the interior walls.
They also burn wood (or odder, coal ?). That fuel has to come from somewhere. ( Another Surface Sourced and Transported material ).
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