The Burnside Bridge is one of the main bridges in Gotham City in Prime Earth. It crosses the Gotham River and connects Gotham City Chinatown in Downtown Gotham with Burnside on the mainland. Prior to the devastation caused by an earthquake, this bridge was originally known as Brown Bridge, but later almost completely destroyed during the Cataclysm. Following the events of No Man's Land, the bridge was rebuilt and renamed Vincefinkel Bridge in New Earth continuity.
History
New Earth
Before the destruction caused by the No Man's Land crisis, Brown Bridge was originally the bridge that stretched across the Gotham River to connect Chinatown in Downtown Gotham with the mainland to the west.[1][2] When the massive earthquake hit Gotham, Brown Bridge and the other main bridges were demolished and collapsed when they were blown up, essentially cutting the island city off from the rest of the United States.[3]
When the No Man's Land incident came to an end, Brown Bridge and the other destroyed bridges were rebuilt. The bridge that replaced the old Brown Bridge was dubbed Vincefinkel Bridge, named after Gordon F. Vincefinkel. In Chinatown, the Vauxhall Opera Shell and Indoor Concert Center was later constructed under the new Vincefinkel Bridge.[4]
Prime Earth
After the Flash travelled back in time and changed the timeline, history was partially altered. While much of Gotham City's prior history remained intact, some changes were also made to the city's geography. In Prime Earth continuity, the bridge connecting Chinatown in Downtown Gotham with Burnside on the mainland was now named Burnside Bridge[5][6] and only occasionally still referred to as Vincefinkel (or Vincefinkle) Bridge.[7][8]
Burnside Bridge once became the scene of a confrontation between Batgirl and Dagger Type, during which Barbara had to leap off of the bridge into the river in order to dodge the bullets when her imposter tried to shoot her with a gun.[5]
The Fugue once had his henchmen set up relay pylons across Burnside in order to amplify his mind control in a scheme to influence the neighborhood's residents to assemble on Burnside Bridge. His plan was to blow the bridge up and then convince the citizens of Gotham that Batgirl was responsible for the deadly incident. However, Batgirl was able to foil the Fugue's plans.[9]
Over the course of the years, members of the Batman Family like Dick Grayson have sometimes used the Burnside Bridge as a meeting point when they contacted Batgirl.[10] The Signal also once met with her at the Gotham end of the Burnside Bridge.[11]
When Oracle later targeted Burnside and set parts of the neighborhood on fire to form a giant burning bat symbol, the western tip of Burnside Bridge was also affected by the fire.[12]
Other Versions
Gotham
Brown Bridge was one of the main bridges destroyed by Jeremiah Valeska's explosive self-perpetuating generators and later appeared on James Gordon's map of Gotham City during the No Man's Land crisis.[13][14] Following reunification with the mainland more than one year later, the bridges connecting Gotham City with the mainland were reconstructed.[15]
Batwoman
In this continuity, Brown Bridge, Loeb Bridge and Trigate Bridge are mentioned as the three bridges that connect Gotham City to the mainland. When Alice was able to escape from Crows Security, the organization ordered both Brown and Loeb Bridge to be closed in order to prevent her from leaving the city, but kept Trigate Bridge open in hopes to eventually capture her there and also to make sure that traffic would keep moving.[16]
Notes
- The location of Brown Bridge was originally established by Eliot R. Brown for the official map of Gotham City that was first used in Batman: No Man's Land #1. Following the reconstruction of Gotham City after the end of No Man's Land, the new bridge that replaced the destroyed Brown Bridge was dubbed "Vincefinkel Bridge". When the DC Universe was rebooted in the wake of The New 52, the bridge was eventually renamed "Burnside Bridge" when the neighborhood across the Gotham River was established as Burnside. The Burnside Bridge then became a recurring location in the Batgirl comics and was later the scene of the massive "Battle for the Burnside Bridge" in Batgirl: Endgame #1.
- Artist and writer James Harvey has shared his proposals for Burnside's location on Tumblr and Reddit, where he also revealed that "Brown Bridge/Vincefinkel Bridge is internally referred to as "Burnside Bridge" these days". Harvey drew a full map of Burnside for Batgirl (Volume 4) #50, which incorporated a prior streetplan by Babs Tarr and also confirms that Burnside Bridge connects to Downtown Gotham, making the renaming of the bridge canon.[17][18]
- The original Brown Bridge was named after artist Bob Brown, who co-created Talia al Ghul, Beast Boy and Copperhead among several other characters.
- Gordon F. Vincefinkel, the namesake of Vincefinkel Memorial Bridge on New Earth, appears to amalgamate the names of Jordan B. Gorfinkel (nicknamed "Gorf") and Darren Vincenzo, who worked as editors on several issues of the Batman: No Man's Land storyline.
See Also
- Appearances of Burnside Bridge
- Location Gallery: Burnside Bridge
- Catalogued images related to Burnside Bridge
- ↑ Batman: No Man's Land #1
- ↑ Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #119
- ↑ Batman: No Man's Land (novel)
- ↑ Daily Planet Guide to Gotham City
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Batgirl (Volume 4) #37
- ↑ Batgirl: Endgame #1
- ↑ Batman (Volume 3) #3
- ↑ Batman (Volume 3) #4
- ↑ Batgirl (Volume 4) #50
- ↑ Nightwing (Volume 4) #1
- ↑ Detective Comics #952
- ↑ Batgirl (Volume 5) #40
- ↑ Gotham: "A Dark Knight: No Man's Land"
- ↑ Gotham: "Year Zero"
- ↑ Gotham: "They Did What?"
- ↑ Batwoman: "An Un-Birthday Present"
- ↑ Harvey, James (31 March 2016). Burnside added to Gotham Map. Reddit.
- ↑ Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) (Burnside era 2015/2016). Writeups.org.