

So, Why Do We Call It Gotham Anyway? (2011) - Thevet
http://www.nypl.org/blog/2011/01/25/so-why-do-we-call-it-gotham-anyway

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freshyill
This is the very first topic covered in, well, Gotham. If you're interested in
the history of New York City, it's a great book. I say that even though I'm
still currently reading it, and probably will be for some time to come. It's
about 1,400 pages in print and the ebook formats to about 3,500 on my iPad
mini.

[http://www.amazon.com/Gotham-History-York-
City-1898/dp/01951...](http://www.amazon.com/Gotham-History-York-
City-1898/dp/0195140494)

Irving's Knickerbocker's History of New York is on Project Gutenberg.

[http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13042](http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13042)

One interesting thing in this book is that it has a very early reference to
Saint Nicholas as an explicitly Santa Claus-like figure:

> And the sage Oloffe dreamed a dream—and, lo! the good St. Nicholas came
> riding over the tops of the trees, in that self-same wagon wherein he brings
> his yearly presents to children. And he descended hard by where the heroes
> of Communipaw had made their late repast. And he lit his pipe by the fire,
> and sat himself down and smoked; and as he smoked the smoke from his pipe
> ascended into the air, and spread like a cloud overhead. And Oloffe
> bethought him, and he hastened and climbed up to the top of one of the
> tallest trees, and saw that the smoke spread over a great extent of
> country—and as he considered it more attentively he fancied that the great
> volume of smoke assumed a variety of marvelous forms, where in dim obscurity
> he saw shadowed out palaces and domes and lofty spires, all of which lasted
> but a moment, and then faded away, until the whole rolled off, and nothing
> but the green woods were left. And when St. Nicholas had smoked his pipe he
> twisted it in his hatband, and laying his finger beside his nose, gave the
> astonished Van Kortlandt a very significant look, then mounting his wagon,
> he returned over the treetops and disappeared.

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karlb
I used to work just three miles from Gotham in Nottinghamshire, UK. It's
comically unimposing.

Its Wikipedia page is here:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotham,_Nottinghamshire](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotham,_Nottinghamshire)

…and its location is here:

[https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Gotham,+Nottingham,+Nott...](https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Gotham,+Nottingham,+Nottinghamshire+NG11/@52.8666085,-1.2036349,15z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x4879e7fdc238d091:0x1c80d387bdf87dd5)

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EGreg
I always thought it referred to the shape of gothic architecture that New
York's skyline might evoke in past days. With a dark pallette it could very
much be used in a batman cityscape.

