Rivet City

Rivet City is a city inside a beached aircraft carrier in the Capital Wasteland. It's the largest, most developed and scientifically-advanced settlement in this region. Its inhabitants live in individual rooms and enjoy safety and security inside the aircraft carrier. A number of guards (who wear unique combat armor and combat helmets) rotate 24 hours a day to protect the ship from raiders, super mutants, and any other threats to city and its denizens. Rivet City includes a shopping area, as well as an American History Museum, Science Lab, Church, clinic, bar, and even a hotel, among numerous other services.

Background
Rivet City is located inside of an aircraft carrier which was docked at the Washington Naval Yard during the Great War, and left stranded when the water level in the Anacostia and Potomac rivers dropped. The city itself was founded in 2239, when Horace Pinkerton and a group of scientists came upon the ship, which was infested with mirelurks. After clearing the ship, they found an intact hydroponics bay, which they used to set up a research lab. The rest of Rivet City grew up around the lab, and when Madison Li arrived at Rivet City in 2258 to begin Project Purity, and co-opted Pinkerton's staff, he left for the bow, which by this point had been separated from the rest of the ship. By 2277, Rivet City was the sole supplier of edible, non-irradiated food in the Capital Wasteland, trading it for essential raw materials with other communities.

Location
Rivet City lies in the most south-eastern part of the map, near Anacostia. It is easiest to reach by following the eastern side of the River Potomac, crossing near the Tepid Sewer or at the Citadel, or by swimming across from Arlington Library (If you do not have the Point Lookout add-on watch out for the mirelurks which reside here). You can also walk from the Jefferson Memorial.

There is an intercom button on the steel structure across from the Aircraft Carrier itself, across from where Carlos the beggar asks for water. Use the intercom button to extend the bridge to Rivet City. You may then cross and enter a brief conversation with the city's chief of police Harkness.

The Marketplace
The Marketplace in Rivet City is one of many places in the Capital Wasteland to go to buy guns, equipment, and apparel. Flak 'N Shrapnel's is the main weapons dealer in Rivet City, with all weapons being sold at fairly low prices. Unfortunately, this is due to the fact that all their merchandise is in terrible condition. Despite this, it is still one of the best weapon merchants in the game. If, however, you're looking for special energy weapons then look somewhere else because they only have the basics. The next place to get equipment (or useless junk) is Rivet City Supply, run by Seagrave Holmes, but it is not useful unless you are looking for random parts to make an item. From time to time, Holmes will sell bobby pins if you're in need of them. Gary's Galley is the place where both food and alcohol are sold. He sells Sugar Bombs on random occasions, in case the player has the unmarked quest, Murphy's Bombing Run. A Quick Fix is where you can buy all sorts of chems, from Rad-X and RadAway, to Stimpaks and Buffout. Potomac Attire is the last store there, where you can buy different types of apparel but nothing fancy or in good condition. He does sell the RobCo Jumpsuit, for those in need of an item of clothing that will offer a boost to their repair abilities.
 * Even though everything in the Marketplace is in bad condition, all of the items on the shelves and on display can be stolen without notice by dragging the item into a corner where you are hidden before taking it.

Layout
To access Rivet City, climb to the 3rd-story of the tower near the Rivet City map marker. There is a silver intercom near Carlos. When activated a bridge will extend from the ship.

Rivet City contains a large and thriving marketplace, as well as other institutions, such as:
 * A poorly-stocked yet well-guarded armory.
 * The Capitol Preservation Society with a museum of pre-War historical artifacts and knowledge.
 * The Muddy Rudder bar.
 * The Rivet City science lab.
 * Saint Monica's Church.
 * The Weatherly Hotel.

Fortunately, Rivet City is quite well signposted, unlike the Citadel.

The broken bow (entrance to which can be found under water) of the ship was separated from the main carrier substructure and half-flooded. The lower levels are inhabited by mirelurks while the upper levels contain Pinkerton's laboratory and home. Players will want to be wary when exploring this area as Pinkerton has set up numerous traps throughout the bow, such as rigged shotguns, frag mines, a gas leak and an Exploding terminal placed conveniently near the heavy door to Pinkerton's lab.

On the upper deck you can rent a hotel room for 120 caps from Vera Weatherly, or her robot. After purchasing the hotel room, you can access it for free thereafter. With this room comes a bed, which grants you the Well Rested bonus effect of +10% experience. If you didn't rent the room, you can pick the lock (very hard) without losing karma. Even though the bed inside is called 'My Bed' you can't use it until you've rented the room.

When you get to the upper deck of the carrier, take a good look at the aircraft that still remain. These are the same jets that are used in the Operation: Anchorage add-on and thus, the standard jet aircraft for the U.S military in 2077. There is a motorcycle handbrake and motorcyle gas tank on the flight deck.

For a player exploring the vessel, when checking out the bridge tower, it is worth going through all the exterior doors. These lead to catwalks on the outside of the tower, most of which have either an ammunition box or a first aid box just lying around. After a while, a pretty impressive collection of ammunition and stimpaks can be amassed by the determined traveler.

Exterior
Northwest of Rivet City is a super mutant camp with a Lying, Congressional Style skill book by the sleeping mats near several boxes of ammunition, and a super mutant captive.

South of Rivet City there is a shipwrecked boat surrounded by radioactive waste. The boat contains ammunition boxes and a locked first aid box. Be cautious: you will have to swim to the boat.

Inhabitants

 * ¹ After successfully opening Vault 101.
 * ² After successful completion of Those!.
 * ³ After successfully completing the unmarked quest Cherry's Freedom.
 * * After completion of the Replicated Man quest, Pinkerton will not be essential.
 * Note: all trader's stores are re-stocked on Monday's and Thursday's.

Notable loot

 * The Bobblehead - Intelligence is standing on the table in the Science Lab.
 * A copy of Rock-It Launcher schematics in the armory (Very Hard lock).
 * In the small alcove where Paulie Cantelli OD's, if given drugs, there is a locked filing cabinet that can be repicked every three days to obtain lockpicking experience and a few random items.
 * For those who can shrug off the negative Karma, there is fresh fruit to be looted in this area.

Appearances
Rivet City appears in Fallout 3.

Behind the scenes


The Craig Mullins concept art published on May 15, 2007 shows a city with ruined skyscrapers and an aircraft carrier which has run ashore and is connected to one of them by a rudimentary bridge. The aircraft carrier appears to be the USS Oriskany although the image is mirrored thus placing the island on the wrong side of the ship. The picture that was used for reference is located on a website devoted to naval vessels.

Bugs

 * After reaching the end of the Rivet City bridge, and jumping down to the platform below it, there is a place where you can fall through the boat. When jumping off on the right side (or left, but go to the right side) there will be an open "room" with a first aid box and two ammunition boxes. Should you go to the corner past the leftmost ammunition box, you fall through the boat and land in the water. Fast travel to a different location or reload an older save to fix this problem.
 * One of the dinner plates in the Young family's room can be taken without Karma penalty, while all the rest are marked as owned.
 * In the room next to the commons (the one with the filing cabinets), if you walk into the left part of the door frame facing the farthest wall in the room, the wall becomes see-through.
 * There is a gap around the door to the armory. The mark II turret may detect and even shoot at you, which is closely followed by everyone else turning hostile.
 * You can enter the armory in the Bridge Tower by simply equipping a melee weapon and peeking through the left hole in the armory door and using V.A.T.S on the turret inside the room. Save before doing this as you usually glitch to the back of the room behind the cabinet.
 * NOTE: If you enter the armory using this method, you will become trapped inside behind the locked door, unless Private Jones comes close enough to the door for you to be able to target him in V.A.T.S. This will also cause everyone to become hostile towards you.
 * Dogmeat or his puppies will glitch and land on a cat walk that is inaccessible if you tell it to find any thing on the outside of the aircraft carrier.
 * Jumping on the bridge before it stops moving will cause it to clang loudly and move in jumps.
 * There is a way to earn unlimited experience by simply going to the marketplace at night and picking all the locks then waiting 24 hours and repeating.
 * 4 cars and a bus are located outside of Rivet City. When standing on the most northern car at the right while it explodes will cause the player to float above where to car first stood.
 * A rare glitch in which after you exit the in-game load screen from fast-traveling to Rivet city, when you turn towards the Jefferson memorial your screen display will show random red, green and blue linear patterns(pointing towards the center of the screen) which will change when the player moves.This may be solved by loading the previous savegame, though this does not always work.(unconfirmed)