Fontaine's Station



Fontaine's Station is the first place Booker DeWitt and Elizabeth arrive after journeying to Fontaine's Department Store in search of Sally.

Burial at Sea
As the main point of ingress into the Department Store, Fontaine's Station was used to welcome new customers and showcase some of the store's products. Now the station is abandoned save for the crabs that scuttle through the ankle-deep seawater. There are platforms for two Bathyspheres, but one is blocked by a broken vehicle. The site has advertisements and displays to promote the stores' many products as well as information kiosks for Bathysphere travel and sale updates. There are two kinetoscopes exhibiting short films by Sander Cohen. As Booker and Elizabeth explore the area, they observe large build-ups of ice and snow.

At the far end of the station is the Return’s Desk. Here the store handled refunds, exchanges, store information, and complaints. Beyond the desk, Booker and Elizabeth find a sealed, electrified gate that prevents anyone from entering or leaving the department store, courtesy of the Rapture Central Council. Around the corner, they find a pair of Air Grabbers on some frozen corpses. Elizabeth comments about “constants and variables.” Intending to jump the fence, Booker uses the Air Grabber to leap up to an ornamental lighting sconce, but, once there the grabber jams from being unused for such a long period. Suddenly, a trio of arguing Splicers run out from a culvert. One, a Frosty Splicer, forms an ice bridge across a stream of rushing water, temporarily freezes one of the Splicers, and escapes into a waiting elevator. DeWitt unjams the device, leaps down, and takes out the aggressors.

On the other side of the gate, they can see their destination, The Housewares Building. Elizabeth explains that a tram system connects the three department buildings and that they must get to the tram. An adjacent model corroborates her claim. While the two ride the elevator to The Pavilion, Elizabeth asks when Booker immigrated to Rapture. He struggles to remember but settles on the year 1949.