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round trip. There are no service station facilities on the missile
range. The caravan is scheduled to leave Trinity Site at 12:30 p.m.
for the return to Alamogordo. The caravan may leave later if there is
a large number of vehicles in the returning caravan.
In 1995, an additional open house will be conducted on July 16, the
50th anniversary of the Trinity test. Visitors may enter the missile
range through the Stallion Range Center gate from 5 to 11 a.m. There
will be no caravan leaving from Alamogordo, N.M., for this event. The
early hours will allow visitors to be on-site at 5:29:45 a.m., the
time the Trinity Site detonation occurred, and should help visitors
avoid the 100-plus degree afternoon temperatures common here in July.
Included on the Trinity Site tour is Ground Zero where the atomic bomb
was placed on a 100-foot steel tower and exploded on July 16, 1945. A
small monument now marks the spot. Visitors also see the McDonald
ranch house where the world's first plutonium core for a bomb was
assembled. The missile range provides historical photographs and a
Fat Man bomb casing for display. There are no ceremonies or speakers.
Portable toilet facilities are available on site. Hot dogs and sodas
are sold at the parking lot. Cameras are allowed at Trinity Site, but
their use is strictly prohibited anywhere else on White Sands Missile
Range.
For more information, contact the White Sands Missile Range Public
Affairs Office at (505) 678-1134/1700.
Trinity Site National Historic Landmark
Trinity Site is where the first atomic bomb was tested at 5:29:45 a.m.
Mountain War Time on July 16, 1945. The 19 kiloton explosion not only
led to a quick end to the war in the Pacific but also ushered the
world into the atomic age. All life on Earth has been touched by the
event which took place here.
The 51,500-acre area was declared a national historic landmark in
1975. The landmark includes base camp, where the scientists and
support group lived; ground zero, where the bomb was placed for the
explosion; and the McDonald ranch house, where the plutonium core to
the bomb was assembled. On your visit to Trinity Site you will be
able to see ground zero and the McDonald ranch house. In addition, on
your drive into the Trinity Site area you will pass one of the old
instrumentation bunkers which is beside the road just west of ground
zero.
The Manhattan Project
The story of Trinity Site begins with the formation of the Manhattan
Project in June 1942. The project was given overall responsibility of
designing and building an atomic bomb. At the time it was a race to
beat the Germans who, according to intelligence reports, were building
their own atomic bomb.
Under the Manhattan Project three large facilities were constructed.
At Oak Ridge, Tenn., huge gas diffusion and electromagnetic process
plants were built to separate uranium 235 from its more common form,
uranium 238. Hanford, Wash. became the home for nuclear reactors
which produced a new element called plutonium. Both uranium 235 and
plutonium are fissionable and can be used to produce an atomic
explosion.
Los Alamos was established in northern New Mexico to design and build
the bomb. At Los Alamos many of the greatest scientific minds of the
day labored over the theory and actual construction of the device.
The group was led by Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer who is credited with
being the driving force behind building a workable bomb by the end of
the war.
The Theory
Los Alamos scientists devised two designs for an atomic bomb--one
using the uranium and another using the plutonium. The uranium bomb
was a simple design and scientists were confident it would work
without testing. The plutonium bomb worked by compressing the
plutonium into a critical mass which sustains a chain reaction. The
compression of the plutonium ball was to be accomplished by
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