Bathysphere Station

The Bathyspher Station serves as the primary ingress point into Rapture. Bathyspheres from the Lighthouse ferry new arrivals to the Welcome Center complex from this point. Several import elements of BioShock take place here.

History
Every new citizen of Rapture entered through the Bathysphere Station. The station is different from most others in Rapture as it was equipped with two bathysphere docking bays to handle the large influx of expatriates while still operating normal local bathysphere travel. Just beyond the Bathysphere Station is a comfortable Lounge for anyone waiting for the next 'shere's arrival. The Lounge is connected by tunnels to several different portions of Rapture's Welcome Complex.

As life became more difficult in Rapture, Andrew Ryan instituted a lockdown on all bathysphere travel. The covers over both of the bathysphere docking bays were lowered and travel was suspended at the station. Naturally, this decision was not met favorably and the Bathysphere Station was the site of a large protest. The Bathyspher Station and Lounge fell into disuse afterwards. Like most of Rapture, both areas suffered serious damage from the Civil War. At some point, a lone Thuggish Splicer took up residence in the Lounge.

BioShock
After descending in a bathysphere from the Lighthouse, Jack arrives in the Bathyspher Station. Before he can fully appreciate Rapture, he gets his first encounter with the populace when, while still inside his bathysphere, he witnesses the splicer Rose corner and eviscerate Johnny. Upon noticing the newly arrived vessel, the crazed woman jumps atop the bathysphere and starts cutting into it in an attempt to get at its occupant. She gives up, but the vehicle is damaged beyond repair. Via shortwave service radio, Atlas introduces himself and instructs Jack on how to proceed. After some Security Bots scare Rose off, Jack comes across the wrench. Jack continues on to the Lounge and deals with the splicer waiting for him. He gains the Electro Bolt Plasmid and journeys into Rapture.

BioShock Infinite
Destroying the Siphon releases a massive amount of power which embues Elizabeth with total control over her powers. The blast also destroys the whistler, meaning Booker DeWitt can no longer control the Songbird and it's free to attack. However, just before the bird can reach them, Elizabeth transports the three of them to the Lounge area of the Bathysphere Station. Elizabeth says an emotional goodbye as the Songbird, on the other side of the window, is slowly drowned and crushed by the enormous pressure. Afterwards, Booker questions Elizabeth about this new, strange location, and she explains that it's "a doorway." The two then proceed down to the staion and board a bathysphere up to the Lighthouse. The station and lounge in the reality that Booker and Elizabeth enter is purposefully different from the one in BioShock. Though largely similar, certain elements and details from the two locations are different, added, or missing and the two games should not be considered as taking place in the same reality.

Behind the Scenes

 * In the Lounge, a pair of chairs block the stairs up to the Gatherer's Garden and they cannot be moved out of the way. As soon as Jack deals the finishing blow to the Toasty splicer, the room shakes and the chairs fall out of the way. The creators purposefully designed it this way so that the Electro Bolt could not be gotten until after the splicer was killed.