Rivet City

Rivet City is the largest human settlement in the Capital Wasteland or Washington, DC area. Its inhabitants live in individual rooms inside an aircraft carrier, and a number of guards rotate 24 hours a day to protect the ship from Raiders, Super mutants, and any other threats to security. Rivet City includes a shopping area called "The Rivet City Marketplace" as well as an American History Museum, Science Lab, Church, clinic, bar and hotel, all of which have related quests to be completed.

Location
Rivet City lies in the most southeastern 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. You can also walk from the Jefferson Memorial.

If you are coming from the back door of the GNR Building, you can come all the way underground from Collapsed Car Tunnel, past the Museum Station, continuing South to the Anacostia station. (Click the Discussion tab for this page regarding a Pip-Boy World Map glitch here.)

There is also an intercom button on the structure 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 Harkness.

History
Rivet City is located inside of an aircraft carrier that was docked at the Washington Navy Yard during the Great War, and left stranded when the water level in the Anacostia and Potomac rivers dropped. The community was founded by members of the pre-War Naval Research Center, who moved to the vessel to make use of its on board facilities and comparatively defensible position. Rivet City 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 start Project Purity, and co-opted Pinkerton's staff, he left for the bow, which by this point had broken off 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.

Notable Areas
Rivet City contains a large and thriving marketplace, as well as other institutions, such as:
 * A well-stocked and 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 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.

For the 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 an ammunition box or something similar worth looting.

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

Northwest of Rivet City is a Super Mutant camp with a Lying, Congressional Style, and a captive.

South of Rivet City there is a shipwrecked boat surrounded by radioactive waste. The boat contains ammo crates and a locked First Aid kit. Be cautious because you will have to swim to the boat.

People
* After successfully opening Vault 101
 * After successful completion of Those!
 * After successfully completing the unmarked quest Cherry's Freedom.

Essential Characters (Unkillable)

 * James Hargrave
 * Harkness
 * Janice Kaplinski
 * Dr. Madison Li
 * Dr. Preston
 * Shrapnel
 * Abraham Washington
 * C.J. Young

Killing and Enslaving Characters in Rivet City
For the Strictly Business quest, one of your objectives is to enslave Flak who resides in Rivet City and is co-owner of Flak 'N Shrapnel's. It is advised that you do not enslave him until you completed most of the game and have a significant amount of ammo, as enslaving him will cause Shrapnel to randomly wander off into the Capital Wasteland (although not die because he is invincible) and then you will have no one to barter with for weapons and ammunition.

Flak, along with the character Brock (who can be found in the Muddy Rudder), are two characters in particular who can be enslaved in Rivet City. If you attempt to enslave them and are caught, you can bail Rivet City by running out of the town far enough until you are no longer being chased/shot at and then fast travel to another city. Fast travel back 24 hours later in game time and the town will forget your sins. This goes along with murdering any of the residents in Rivet City as well.

If you do kill or enslave anyone from Rivet City and are caught, upon re-entering the city, certain characters (mainly the Rivet City guards) will have a unique dialog open. When walking next to them, they will say things like "you're lucky I don't kill you for what you pulled.", "I'm going to give you a second chance.", "You're a low-life, but if you keep your nose clean we'll let you stay." or "We were told to forgive and forget what you did." Certain store owners may say strange things as well after committing a crime in Rivet City.

Related Quests
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. Sometimes the room will have an average lock on it, but you do not lose Karma for picking it.

The Bobblehead - Intelligence is standing on the table in the Science Lab.


 * Scientific Pursuits
 * The Replicated Man
 * Stealing Independence
 * The Wasteland Survival Guide
 * Those!
 * A Nice Day for a Right Wedding
 * Church Donations
 * Council Seat
 * Slave Hunt

Bugs

 * At the Rivet City Midship there is a high chance that your game will freeze, even if you leave the area afterward. The chance of this happening increases if you Plan C (slaughter) the town and can also occur in the marketplace. It is unknown what causes this and no fix has been found.
 * There is a possible fix for the above bug on PC; However, you can clear the cache through the system settings to remove this bug.
 * The game may freeze if you attempt to fast travel after leaving the ship. Reloading a save WILL NOT fix this problem. It appeared to have happened only after enslaving Angela Staley while she was sleeping. It only freezes when you attempt to fast travel; you can travel on foot and generally nothing unusual will happen.
 * If you break a law in Rivet City, [Steal, Murder, etc.] and flee out of the city, the guard at the main entrance will chase you but won't attack. She/he will eventually run right past you.
 * Sometimes when you enter midship deck, Flak and Shrapnel's door will be opened and it closes a little bit afterwards, but if you enter you can only by picking an average lock, which could cause you to reload a save if your lockpick is below 50.
 * With DLC installed, your game will often freeze in this area
 * There is a chance where the bridge will reset, causing the bridge to turn left and making it impossible to return to Rivet City. Speaking to the intercom will not work to solve this bug. A solution to this is loading a previous save before discovering this problem, and coming back to Rivet City. The bridge is likely to be set for you to cross again.

Appearances
Rivet City appears only 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.

Given the vessel's location (at the Washington Navy Yard), it is tempting to assume the carrier must have been a museum piece. This would appear to be supported by the large number of antique aircraft left on the flight deck. The aircraft appear to be a combination of P-80 Shooting Star, Grumman Panthers and the Lockheed SeaStars. However, given the game's setting in a retro-futuristic world, the carrier may have been working and simply docked in such a location (This theory is also backed up by the fact that you can find a crashed jet in Point Lookout that is of the same type as those on the deck). Such modern-day aircraft carrier museums as the USS Lexington and USS Midway display aircraft on board the flight deck and/or hangar deck.

The USS Oriskany was an Essex-class aircraft carrier, of which only four others remain and are open as museums: the USS Hornet in Alameda, California; the USS Lexington, in Corpus Christi, Texas; the USS Yorktown, in Charleston, South Carolina; and the USS Intrepid, in New York City. (The Oriskany is now an artificial reef off the coast of Florida.)

Gallery
Rivet City Ривет-Сити