User blog comment:Evans0305/BioShock Infinite gameplay videos/@comment-1500935-20110623224929/@comment-2250991-20110624120708

yes and no. If you look at the stairway in the far background, it appears to look like that of the one from Columbia, but the surrounding area shows that it exists in a different city. The concept of Tears is like this: Imagine if an existing item that's in this present (furniture, animal, building, weapon, etc). Now imagine that in a different dimension, there's a similar item existing somewhere in another place and in another timeline. For example, The horse and building that I mentioned earlier in Columbia's 1912 timeline, could be revealed by a Tear to have a similar horse and building in another city in the 1980's timeline. I don't know if these kind of Tears are more frequent than the ones that can have items appear, but I think because of all the innovation made in Columbia from them, they could indeed affect the timeline, especially if one faction uses it to change events in history.