July 16, 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the first nuclear detonation, the culminating efforts of the four-year-long Manhattan Project. This test took place on what is now known as the White Sands Missile Range near Socorro, New Mexico in the sweltering summer of 1945. In observance of that moment in history, here’s a peek at some photos from the time period and today.
This image shows the arrival of Jumbo, a containment vessel during a conventional test explosion of 100 tons of TNT.
U.S. Government/Wikimedia Commons
Sergeant Herbert Lehr, a head designer of the bomb, delivers the plutonium core in a padded box.
U.S. Government/Wikimedia Commons
Lead bomb assembler Norris Bradbury stands next to the bomb mid-assembly in the test tower.
U.S. Government/Wikimedia Commons
The explosion in action. Taken 0.016 seconds after the bomb was detonated, this photo shows the fireball at the site. The height of the fireball at this point was approximately 200 meters (656 feet).
Berlyn Brixner/Wikimedia Commons J. Robert Oppenheimer, physicist and “father of the atomic bomb,” later described watching the explosion as such:
“We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita; Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and, to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, ‘Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.’ I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.”
At 0.025 seconds, the fireball appeared more translucent.
Bombazi/Wikimedia Commons Brigadier General Thomas F. Farrell, who served as Chief of Field Operations of the Manhattan Project, described it as:
“The lighting effects beggared description. The whole country was lighted by a searing light with the intensity many times that of the midday sun. It was golden, purple, violet, gray, and blue. It lighted every peak, crevasse and ridge of the nearby mountain range with a clarity and beauty that cannot be described but must be seen to be.”
This photo depicts the aftermath of the explosion, leaving behind a massive crater.
U.S. Government/Wikimedia Commons On the lower right is the TNT test crater, which was exploded a couple of months in advance to compare to the nuclear explosion. That left far less of an impact on the land than the Trinity test did.
Oppenheimer and others inspect the remains of the test site.
U.S. Army Signal Corps/Wikimedia Commons This particular photo was shot in the days after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
This is all that remains of the concrete pylon that held the test tower at the Trinity Site.
Terry Robinson/Flickr
This photo shows trinite, a unique mineral leftover from the explosion.
Terry Robinson/Flickr Green, glassy, and radioactive, it is composed of quartz and sand that melted and fused during the blast.
This concrete obelisk marks the testing site with a plaque reading “Where The World’s First Nuclear Device Was Exploded.”
Terry Robinson/Flickr
75 years later, there is still some level of radioactivity in the area with the levels at ground zero approximately 10 times higher than its surrounding areas.
Terry Robinson/Flickr
The Trinity Site is located on the White Sands Missile Range between San Antonio and Carrizozo, New Mexico. For details about their open house dates and hours, visit the White Sands Missile Range website.
U.S. Government/Wikimedia Commons
Berlyn Brixner/Wikimedia Commons
J. Robert Oppenheimer, physicist and “father of the atomic bomb,” later described watching the explosion as such:
“We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita; Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and, to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, ‘Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.’ I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.”
Bombazi/Wikimedia Commons
Brigadier General Thomas F. Farrell, who served as Chief of Field Operations of the Manhattan Project, described it as:
“The lighting effects beggared description. The whole country was lighted by a searing light with the intensity many times that of the midday sun. It was golden, purple, violet, gray, and blue. It lighted every peak, crevasse and ridge of the nearby mountain range with a clarity and beauty that cannot be described but must be seen to be.”
On the lower right is the TNT test crater, which was exploded a couple of months in advance to compare to the nuclear explosion. That left far less of an impact on the land than the Trinity test did.
U.S. Army Signal Corps/Wikimedia Commons
This particular photo was shot in the days after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Terry Robinson/Flickr
Green, glassy, and radioactive, it is composed of quartz and sand that melted and fused during the blast.
Website: White Sands Missile Range Phone: 1-800-826-0294
Looking for another derelict, abandoned location with some history to tell? You’ll want to pay a visit to Lake Valley, a boomtown turned ghost town near Deming. Read more in Most People Have Long Forgotten About This Vacant Ghost Town In Rural New Mexico.
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Address: Trinity Site, New Mexico 87102, USA
