A bit about the bomb
75 years ago mankind stepped into the Atomic Age
AT 5:30 A.M., 75 years ago, a flash of light brightened the desert valley of the Jornada del Muerto in New Mexico, and the world stepped into the Atomic Age.
The hard work of a team of scientists was realized in the southern New Mexico desert when their “gadget” detonated, sending a fireball and smoke so high the blast could be seen from miles away.
Beginning in 1942, the United States Military began work on a top secret project to put an end to World War II. The “Manhattan Project,” named for its origins in New York City, was tasked with developing the world’s first atomic bomb and was in a race with the German enemies to do so.
Top scientists and thinkers from the theoretical physics community gathered to work on the possibility of a fission explosion with a newly discovered element plutonium. German scientists had already discovered this ability in the 1930s but no such efforts were made to weaponize the explosion.
General Leslie Groves was put in charge of the mission and work was moved to Los Alamos, New Mexico, for its secluded positioning on top of the Pajarito Plateau. Several other locations were speculated for the project and some of those locations played a role in producing some of the materials needed for Los Alamos.
In the secrecy of the mountain, thousands of construction workers began the foundations of one of the most secure areas in the United States at the time.
With only one access road in and out of the city, crews were able to build the infrastructure of Los Alamos, which housed the technicians and scientists for the project. The gate to Los Alamos is still visible upon entry into the city.
Those involved with the Manhattan Project worked in secret and seldom left the mountain. On occasions where a trip to Santa Fe was warranted, guards would accompany a group to ensure the secrets stayed guarded.
As work continued, Groves and his team needed a location to test the device far from cities or settlements. The seclusion and low population density of the Jornada del Muerto (the “path of death”) in southern New Mexico proved to be the best location for testing an unprecedented bomb.
In addition, the weather in the Jornada was constant enough to not give too many additional variables for the fallout of the blast.
Building the Trinity Site, as it became known, took less than a year.
In the fall of 1944, those involved with the project began to make their way south from Los Alamos to a desolate plain north of Alamogordo. The location was far enough from any large town in case the blast didn’t go as planned. This was all technically theoretical after all.
The small town of Socorro was the closest place to refill on supplies for the hundreds of people stationed at the base.
Once the base was established and the work was complete, crews began building the tower to drop the bomb. After it was placed, an armed watch was kept on the gadget night and day until the detonation.
Questions immediately rose with military officials, lower level servicemen and scientists about the bomb’s abilities. Some were even concerned that the fission reaction could continue its path and ignite the earth’s atmosphere.
Famed scientist Robert Oppenheimer, who was the chief scientist behind the project, was also concerned about this possibility but would not have detonated the bomb if it was even a slight possibility.
Just after 5 a.m. on July 16, 1945, the countdown began.
Oppenheimer, Groves and other members of the project sat 5 miles away in bunkers awaiting to see either their failure or success.
At 5:29 a.m., a flash of light lit the horizon as the bomb was detonated.
The fireball was so bright it has been likened to seeing the sun rising over the desert. The shock wave was reportedly so powerful that it shattered windows 120 miles away.
It was reported during the aftermath of the test that Oppenheimer turned away and muttered the words from the Bhagavad-Gita, “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
Seventy-five years after the bomb, Trinity sits alone in the desert. The reddish sand of the Jornada blows over the milky green trinitite glass created by the heat of the blast.
An obelisk rises out of the desert to mark the site where mankind stepped into a whole new era of warfare and power.
Ground zero was officially designated a national historic landmark in 1975. Twice per year, visitors are allowed to make their way to the blast zone.