Rapture IS A City

* See also Construction
* See also Initial_World_Composition
* See also City_Foundation
* See also Rapture Cityscape
* See also Rapture_City_Layout
* See also Public_Spaces_and_Accommodations
* See also The_Rest_Of_Rapture
* See also Businesses
* See also Transportation_Systems
* See also Sanitation
* See also Make Columbia A City ( a far longer more difficult path )
==The Gamemakers of BioShock Took Efforts To make Rapture A City==
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Rapture Was A City
That is THE basic assumption for the original Bio Shock Game's Premise. Something being Sufficiently THERE (and seen) to be labeled "A City".
It has lasted 1946 to 1958 ( inBS1), and beyond to 1968 (in BS2), and beyond that for the MMORPG. ( So Rapture can't be some lame magical 'first-grader play' prop setting like Columbia was ). 
It cannot be some weak Wave_of_the_hand fantasy fiction to have its story properly toldThe "pinky-godhood" crap they had in Infinite BS.
It is more like a 'City State', as it is the only one in its polity/society, and there are no extensive outside territory which supplies it ( It Produces what it utilizes/consumes ( Versus the missing Means of Support being rather obvious in Columbia ).
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Space (in Rapture) - The Final Frontier :
With 20000 +  people  ( perhaps more like 40000 if outlying places and a decade of family population increase is included ), the space needed for the people in Rapture  to reside/work/play/transportation/resource-production would have to be a pretty good size ( even with 'more than a little' vertical constriction Vertical Construction as in high-rise apartment buildings -- even if they are not as bizarrely tall ).    Rough idea of the size : we can assume a suburban housing sprawl of 20000 people would take up an area about a square mile just for residential areaS alone.   Add an equivalent business/commercial/manufacturing space.  Add many times that for the required raw material production and processing.
Well, for an MMORPG, you want a 'good sized' world map, and a continuing supply of new unexplored places.  Rapture's buildings are also somewhat spread out somewhat ( not really that massed Manhattan skyline view - that's largely 'artistic license' - explained at length elsewhere ... )
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All Good Things Flow Into To The City ?
Originally a quote of Pericles about Athens.Athens though had almost an empire ( swaths of the Mediterranean and beyond ) to feed into it.
Unfortunately, with the goal of being Self-Sustaining, and there eventually being little contact/connection with the Rest of the World, All 'Good Things' have to be Made ( or repaired/recycled ) there in Rapture. 
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The "Shandor Building" from GhostBusters -- Stylish Art Deco-ish top levels tiered with window 'Patios' on each stepped level.
Of Course 'Patios' are not quite the same in Undersea Rapture.
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Synonyms of Plaza :
Cluster_naming
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Old City Sections :
How much of Rapture would have been old unused areas, which no longer have much activity ?? 
Example- Paupers Drop existed long before we saw it ( as an AE maintenance area ), and was largely abandoned - the result of the Atlantic Express's passenger service being largely discontinued.   That place may have been an exception as, with an expanding population, additional space could be needed across more than a decade.
Other areas would be those initially built and used for the Primary City construction, which ceased around 1952. Facilities used in importing/storing goods would also have shut down.
Constructing new buildings is expensive, so such buildings likely would be reused. Example - Dionysus Park had ( in my story version ) been the main Cement Plant for the building of Rapture, and was later redeveloped as the Art Complex. Notice -- It did not have much multi-story tallness in its Construction, but did have rather high ceilings which were used to fit huge cement processing machinery which once was inside. On my amended level map of that place, I have added a second Mk1 Train Station to that complex to assist in the Cement Transport ).
Even Paupers Drop eventually was redeveloped ( all those fancy rundown Art Deco buildings there are not normal for an 'under the tracks' industrial type surroundings ).  It was most likely Sinclair who redeveloped that neighborhood, around/with his Sinclair Deluxe Hotel -- Itself far superior to the squalor of Fontaine's tenements and poorhouses in quality ( the writers Audio Diaries seem intent to smear Sinclair as an 'evil' capitalist for some manipulative reason<ref> Game makers probably are not too well acquainted with the Real World and even less so with realities of 70 years ago ).  Much of the grubbiness in the "Paupers Drop" area looks to have 'grown' during the 'civil war', and then degenerated further under Sofia Lamb's Collectivist Regime -- That ALL being well-after Sinclair was forced out.
So for the MMORPG, that means there would be some sections of Rapture long vacated and run down, along with areas which look like they were once 'something else', before being repurposed by various entrepreneurs.
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Rapture isn't that Big ( The picture is for Los Angeles with ~100 X the number of People.
Still We see utility gas lines all across Rapture - So where is the Infrastructure for That ???
NOTE - Hydrogen (vs Natural Gas) would be the likely 'gas' used (no combustion pollution).
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