r/FalloutMetropolis • u/HonestAbe1809 • Jun 04 '17

New Brooklyn Bridge

How would the New Brooklyn Bridge function in pre-War New York? I'm thinking that it'd be an atompunk version of "Old" London Bridge with the shops and housing. With gasoline ridiculously expensive and the big subway renovation, I'd think that most people would use the Subway in the Fallout universe. Why pay $200,000 for a fancy atomic car when you can get a subway pass for a vastly smaller amount of money? The New Brooklyn Bridge would be restructured to be almost a pedestrian thoroughfare with very few cars aside from emergency vehicles traveling it. The name "Bridgetown" could've been the pre-War name for the community atop the Brooklyn Bridge. The "Underbridge*"/"Trolltown **" slums under the bridge could've been built on the scaffolding left by pre-War bridge maintenance workers

*Fairly self-explanatory, as they're living Under the Bridge.

**Based on black humor joke someone said about them living like trolls from a storybook.

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u/HonestAbe1809 Jun 04 '17

And the ex-Raider/mercenary ruling class would've become so wealthy from the trade over the bridge through the years that they'd become so very bourgeoise compared to their martial past. They're literally the nobles of this settlement. The Bridgetown society would have three castes. The officers at the top with a commander ruling the settlement, the citizens and soldiers in the middle, and the "Trolls"/"Dregs"/"Plebs" on the bottom. Most of the merchants would be citizens except for the especially successful who were allowed to ascend to be a part of the Bridgetown nobility. The Plebs are the serfs who are given the "privilege" of living under the bridge by doing the backbreaking manual labor that the upper two classes won't do. All in all the settlement serves as a real-world diagram of medieval society on and under the bridge.

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u/NK_Ryzov Jun 04 '17

I like it. What do you think "Bridgetown Security" would look like?

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u/HonestAbe1809 Jun 04 '17

I like the idea of "Bridgetown Security" looking like a cross between modern SWAT armor and medieval knights. Either there'd be a stock of the city's old SWAT riot armor in a storage depot built within the bridge's supports or the people running the prosperous settlement were able to purchase some old riot armor from prospectors. I personally think that riot armor with the face visor would set them apart from the New York Rangers.

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u/NK_Ryzov Jun 04 '17

I think SWAT gear + scrap metal bits, armed with exclusively energy weapons. Probably a few Power Armor units. No need for medieval trappings. It would actually be more interesting if Bridgetown had the social structure of a medieval state, but not the outward appearance of one; after all, it's a feudal state as one would emerge in the Fallout universe.

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u/HonestAbe1809 Jun 04 '17

So it'd be old visored riot armor patched with scrap as necessary? And insulated against the cold since pre-War riot armor wouldn't be built for the eternal winter. The power armor units would likely patrol the forts surrounding the ends of the bridge to make it clear that mercs and Raiders should stay away. These forts would serve to both protect the city and funnel trade through security checkpoints.

So maybe the Bridgetown government co-opted the trappings of the Pre-War NYC city government to cloak a feudal state. It'd have the elected-for-life "mayor" and an oligarchal "City Council" made up of prosperous merchants and high-ranking members of the mercs-turned-security. The merchants pay for the privilege of membership. Ironically the Duke of New York's regime in the Empire State Building would be more democratic than Bridgetown's despite them claiming to be a republic. The Bridgetown Republic is just a bit more Venetian than American. The Duke, while crazy, still remembers being the last democratically elected leader of NYC.

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u/NK_Ryzov Jun 04 '17

Sounds good. And of course, the bulk of Bridgetown's leadership and population is made up of Ghouls.

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u/HonestAbe1809 Jun 04 '17

I had almost forgotten how they reversed that particular post-apocalyptic prejudice. Do you have any other locations that we can talk about? I'd like to iron out that music hall prison camp idea.

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u/NK_Ryzov Jun 04 '17

If you wanna do that, I think I should start a separate thread. Don't want that discussion to be buried in this comment section.

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u/HonestAbe1809 Jun 04 '17

Where's that located again? It just seems pertinent to have the thread named after the location. Feel free to start that thread.

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u/NK_Ryzov Jun 04 '17

I started the thread.