Gotham City (Earth-1)

"This is why nobody talks about Gotham, okay? City might as well be dead."

- Oliver Queen to Barry Allen and Kara Danvers

Gotham City, simply known as Gotham, is a major city in the United States. It is home to several important businesses and corporations, such as Wayne Enterprises, Elliot Estates and Hamilton Dynamics. Gotham is mentioned to have a population of 1.6 million people. However, as only the one-percenters bring the good part of city to them, Gotham is notorious for its hostile nature. Crime, corruption and poverty are widespread to the point that Gotham is considered as a sort of "ghost city" that nobody ever talks about.

Companies

 * Wayne Enterprises: The head business of Gotham City, one of the most powerful multi-billion dollar corporation of the planet, owned and run by Bruce Wayne until he left Gotham in 2015. After that, his board of directors were presumably scammed by get-rich-quick deals, causing the company to go bankrupt. In 2018 Bruce Wayne's cousin, Kate Kane, saw this opportunity to develop the building into a real estate development firm. Its known subsidiaries are Wayne Tech, Wayne Security and Wayne Enterprises Research & Development which are all still running.
 * Elliot Estates: A company founded, owned and led by Tommy Elliot, which granted him the status of real estate mogul and realized his lifelong dream of being wealthier than Bruce Wayne.
 * Hamilton Dynamics: is a powerful arms industry and defense contractor company that finances Crows Security and is owned by Catherine Hamilton-Kane.

Cafés

 * GC Jitters: Similar to CC Jitters, it is a coffee shop located in Gotham City.
 * Marley Coffee: Having portable stalls roam around populous areas of the city, Marley Coffee sells various coffee beverages.

Crime
Gotham City is widely notorious as a breeding ground of crime, especially when Batman mysteriously disappeared in around 2015. According to Kate Kane, Batman's absence made the residents of Gotham go to "five different kinds of Hell", and implied that crime was at an all-time high than it had ever been before. This was evident when in 2018, a criminal who goes by Alice, along with her Wonderland gang, terrorized Gotham, all to satiate her personal vendetta against the Crows Security's head, Jacob Kane.

Another incident in December 2018 included five men claiming to be from the Gotham Tourism Bureau as they tried to mug Oliver Queen, Barry Allen, and Kara Danvers. The heinous nature of the city is a result of the rampant poverty, akin to an endemic disease, that affects almost all of Gotham's citizens, doing whatever they need to do in order to survive.

Vigilantism
Gotham is known to have registered the first case of vigilantism ever in the figure of Batman, a brutal individual who dressed like a bat, fought against evil, and struck terror into the hearts of criminals everywhere. However, Batman's very existence has always sparked debate, with many arguing that he was nothing but an urban legend created by the Gotham City Police Department to instill fear in criminals, while other dismissed him as being simply a "myth"". One of Batman's apparently well-known associates was a young individual known to the world only as "Robin". The mysterious Batman, however, disappeared sometime around 2015 and, three years after that, the equally-mysterious Batwoman has taken his place. She alone takes on crime, and more so especially since Batman left, as his absence brought out the worst criminals in the city, although many mistakenly believed the latter was Batman himself, returned after years of absence.

Culture
Gotham Art Museum: The Gotham Art Museum contains historical pieces of art. It is where the official Bat-Signal is located and kept.   Bat-Signal: In the past, Gothamites would turn on the Bat-Signal as a distress signal for Batman whenever somebody needed help, although in 2018, the city government decided that it was best they ultimately switch off the signal to signify the permanence of Batman's absence. Some citizens protested against this, as even though the vigilante is nowhere within the city, the searchlight continues to instill fear in criminals yet hope for its ordinary and desperate citizens.   Movie in the Park: As of 2018, the Gotham City government, in partnership with Crows Security, reinstated the Gotham City: Movie in the Park event at Robinson Park, intended to display the city's residents' resilience from giving into the fear of local crime.  Museum of Antiquities: The museum contains artifacts of Gotham's past. A new exhibit was opened in 2018.  

Parks

 * Robinson Park: a public park located in Gotham City and known for it's associated cultural event Movie in the Park.
 * Burnside Park: a once ardent public park that was abandoned prior to 2018 and is now in ruin.

Structures

 * Loeb Bridge: This structure is one of Gotham's many massive bridges. It's sometimes used by GCPD or the Crows in order to transport criminals to Arkham Asylum.
 * Blackgate Penitentiary: A massive prison located outside Gotham.

Education

 * Gotham University: Presumably a prestigious university in Gotham, as it is where Mary Hamilton is currently taking up nursing.
 * Point Rock Academy: It is a strict military academy located in Gotham, where some of its students study to get employed at Crows Security.

Health

 * Gotham Central Hospital: It is a hospital located in Gotham City.
 * Arkham Asylum: A psychiatric asylum "for the criminally insane", Arkham Asylum is where criminals suffering from mental illnesses are incarcerated, presumably because most of the patients are considered to be very dangerous. Many of the patients admitted to the asylum are meta-humans; Caitlin Snow showed her cryogenic powers to a nurse, who then stated that there are others with cases similar to hers.

Media

 * Gotham Inquisitor: Founded in 1943 or earlier, the Gotham Inquisitor is the known longest-running newspaper publisher in Gotham.
 * Gotham City Networking, Inc.: As a news media company, Gotham City Networking, Inc. publishes newspapers and other media.
 * Gotham City Gazette: As of 2018, Gotham City Networking, Inc. published the Gotham City Gazette.
 * Gotham City News: is a television news station broadcasting in Gotham City.
 * Vesper Fairchild's radio talk show: A radio talk show hosted by the famous Vesper Fairchild is one of the most important and popular sources of information for Gothamites.

Security

 * Gotham City Police Department (GCPD): The GCPD is the police department of Gotham, in charge of the Gothamites' security, and also overseeing and associating with the operations of private security companies such as the Crows.
 * Crows Security: With Batman's departure from Gotham, the Crows took over as the protectors of Gotham City, albeit only for the most prestigious of civilians.

Buildings

 * Burnside Orphanage
 * Crows Security Headquarter
 * Elliot Tower
 * Miller Farm
 * Wayne Tower

Neighborhoods

 * Bennett Ave
 * Crows District
 * Kubert District

Residences

 * Kane house
 * Kane penthouse

History
Bruce Wayne lived in Gotham with his parents Thomas and Martha Wayne until one fateful night, they were murdered, leaving him as the sole survivor. Sometime after, he began to operate as the vigilante Batman long enough for the public to be aware of him. In January 2003, he pursued a school bus that had been hijacked by the Joker and, through happenstance, impacted a car that contained Bruce's two cousins (Kate and Beth Kane) and aunt. Despite his effort to prevent it, the car fall from a bridge into the river below, leaving Kate as the only one who apparently managed to escape. Batman, as well as the whole city including Kate's father Jacob, searched for Gabi and Beth's bodies for months, until the first one was found and a branch of men led by Catherine Hamilton found skull fragments of a deer and she payed the coroner in order to made them match Beth's DNA.

In 2015, Batman mysteriously left the city for unknown reasons. Before that, crime and corruption were way down and Gotham was a relatively more peaceful city. Since Batman's absence though, the city was rarely visited by anyone due to high crime rates and corruption. At some point after that, Crows Security became the new protectors of Gotham albeit only available for prestigious individuals.

After surviving the explosions on Lian Yu in 2017, Talia al Ghul went to Gotham to pay an old foe a visit, which landed her in Slabside Prison.

In 2018, the Bat-Signal was finally shut off to signify the permanence of Batman's absence, but was interrupted as a new villain who goes by the name Alice, as in Alice in Wonderland, introduced herself and waged war against the Crows. Due to Batman's absence, Kate Kane was forced to uphold his cousin Batman's legacy and eventually became the new vigilante of Gotham City known as Batwoman.

Known visitors

 * Talia al Ghul
 * Barry Allen
 * John Diggle
 * Oliver Queen
 * Cisco Ramon
 * Caitlin Snow
 * Cisco Ramon
 * Caitlin Snow

Known mayors

 * Akins

Trivia

 * Gotham's citizens refer to themselves as Gothamites.
 * Unlike in the DC comics, the citizens of Gotham City in the shared multiverse, are far too reliant on Batman; to the point that crime went very high again, after the Dark Knight left Gotham for unknown reasons.

Behind the scenes

 * In the DC comics, Gotham City is the home of the hero known as Batman. Gotham City is located in the Northeastern United States, in close proximity to Metropolis, with the majority of DC comics references placing Gotham City specifically in New Jersey.
 * In real life, "Gotham" is a nickname that writer Washington Irving attached to New York in November 11, 1807 referencing a village in England inhabited, according to folklore, by people who feigned madness and were branded as true fools.
 * Batman creator Bill Finger took inspiration from that nickname and New York City itself provided the basic visuals for the fictional city.
 * The filming of Gotham in ​ takes place in Chicago.
 * This was also the same location for Gotham City where Batman Begins and The Dark Knight was filmed.