See the project that ushered our world into the Nuclear Age.
In 1938, the atom was split and just a few months later, World War Two broke out. These seemingly unrelated events would later come together and result in the creation of the nuclear bomb.
Robert Oppenheimer was chosen to head the project, established in a secret town in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Alongside this research facility hidden in the desert, the military maintained several other stations for plutonium production and research.
All this manpower, knowledge, and innovation eventually resulted in the deadliest weapon ever.
1
The main gate at Los Alamos.
1945
2
Four-family apartment units at Los Alamos
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3
Isidor Isaac Rabi, Dorothy McKibbin, Robert Oppenheimer and Victor Weisskopf at Oppenheimer's home in Los Alamos.
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4
Norris Bradbury, group leader for bomb assembly, stands next to the partially assembled Gadget atop the test tower during the Trinity test.
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The explosives of "the gadget" were raised to the top of the tower for the final assembly.
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A Little Boy unit on Tinian connected to test equipment, possibly to test or charge components within the device.
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7
Leslie Groves, military head of the Manhattan Project, with Oppenheimer.
1942
8
Commander A. Francis Birch assembles the Little Boy bomb while physicist Norman Ramsey watches. This is one of the rare photos where the interior of the bomb can be seen, with the fuzing units and battery boxes visible, attached around the gun tube.
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9
Aerial view of K-25 Gaseous Diffusion Plant at Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
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10
Front face of the B reactor at the Hanford site where plutonium was manufactured.
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11
The Trinity test base camp
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12
"Jumbo", the nickname for the gadget, arrives at the site.
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13
Louis Slotin and Herbert Lehr prior to insertion of the bomb's tamper plug
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14
The Technical Area at Los Alamos.
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15
The 100-foot "shot tower" constructed for the test
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Famous color photograph of the "Trinity" shot, the first nuclear test explosion.
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Mushroom cloud of 'Gadget' over Trinity, seconds after detonation.
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Supervising the loading of the Little Boy bomb into the B-29 Enola Gay. Norman Ramsey is on his left, with his back to the camera.
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The mushroom cloud over Hiroshima.
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20
Los Alamos ranch house. Robert Oppenheimer, Leslie Groves and Robert Sproul at the ceremony to present the Los Alamos Laboratory with the Army-Navy E Award.
October 16th, 1945
