TRAVEL AWAITS: THE SECRETS OF THE MANHATTAN PROJECT

The complete article was published in Travel Awaits in September 2020

The Manhattan Project produced Little Boy and Fat Man, the first and only atomic bombs ever dropped, destroying the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively, killing more than 200,000 people. It put an end to WWII which had already killed 1.2 million Americans at the time.

It has become the model for large-scale, highly technical, hazardous wartime projects that have to be carried out in utmost secrecy. It was led by the U.S. with support from the UK (which initiated the original Tube Alloys project) and Canada. 

Because we were RVing across North America, in the span of three years, we saw the sites that contributed to its successful outcome: Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Hanford Reach, Washington; and Los Alamos, New Mexico. They comprise the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, created in 2015.

Oak Ridge Production Facility

Oak Ridge, Tennessee

We saw the full extent of the facilities at an overlook up a hill near the town. The total footprint at the time it was operational was 43-hectares, with five million square feet of working space on four floors. 

The Manhattan Project developed two types of atomic bombs: a simple gun-type fission weapon using enriched uranium, and a more complex implosion-type atomic bomb using plutonium. This Oak Ridge site, codenamed “Site X,” produced the enriched uranium using three enrichment methods.

We also toured the historic part of town and the visitor center. We learned about how the whole town buzzed with activity during the time. We also watched the documentary film The Secret City. Everyone was sworn to secrecy by Public Proclamation Number Two declaring no entry without military permission. The Oak Ridge population expanded well beyond the initial plans and peaked at 75,000 in May 1945. 

Hanford Reach National Monument

Hanford Reach, Washington

Just two months later, we were in Washington, waiting for my Seattle appointment in connection with my application for citizenship, and made it to the Hanford Reach National Monument, created in 2000. It had been untouched by development or agriculture since 1943 because of the Manhattan Project activities conducted there. As a matter of fact, it has been considered an involuntary park like Chernobyl.

This national monument preserves the seven reactors built to produce plutonium for the more complex implosion bomb. The site was chosen because the location had to be as far as possible from Oak Ridge. Codenamed “Site W,” by July 1944, some 1,200 buildings had been erected and nearly 51,000 people were living in the construction camp. It contains the B Reactor National Historic Landmark, the reactor that produced the plutonium for Fat Man. 

Bathtub Row in Low Alamos

Los Alamos, New Mexico

Two years later, when we were exploring the Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico, we found out that the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos was just 20 minutes away. So we took a little detour to explore the third unit. It was the central design and production facility, codenamed “Site Y.” Again, it was decided that this integral facility should be in a remote but midway between  Oak Ridge and Hanford Reach. 

The team of scientists who worked here, which included Enrico Fermi and was led by Robert Oppenheimer, built both atom bombs. We delighted in seeing the cottages on Bathtub Row where they lived, the only homes in the facility with bathtubs. The Bradbury Science Museum tells the whole story and houses what remains of the two bombs.

The Two Bombs

Testing and detonation was done at Trinity Site, southwest of Albuquerque, at New Mexico’s Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range. Today, visits to the site are sponsored by the Alamogordo Chamber of Commerce on the first Saturdays of April and October. The rest of the year, it is closed because it lies within a missile impact zone.

Today, there are 17 laboratoies in the forefront of scientific research and development, some of which are conducted nowhere else in the world. The Los Alamos National Laboratory that designed and finally assembled the bombs still operates as part of the network. The U.S. has continued to be at the forefront of science to meet the challenges of the world.

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