WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, N.M. — The site of the world’s first atomic-bomb test will open for public tours Saturday.
The first atomic-bomb test was set off at Trinity Site on the restricted White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico on July 16, 1945. Now a small lava obelisk marks ground zero. Historical photos are mounted on a fence around the site. Visitors also can ride a shuttle bus from the site to tour a ranch house where scientists assembled the bomb.
No ceremonies or speakers are scheduled.
All adults on the tour must show a photo ID, and drivers should carry registration and proof of insurance. Vehicles are subject to search.
The Trinity Site test was the result of the secret Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, about 200 miles to the north. Scientists developed two bomb designs — one with uranium and the other plutonium — and decided to test the complex plutonium design.
Scientists assembled the bomb at the ranch house, then took it to Trinity Site and hoisted it onto a 100-foot tower.
The plutonium blast produced a flash of light visible 250 miles away, a roar heard 50 miles away and a mushroom cloud that rose 40,000 feet. It vaporized the tower.
Less than a month later, the United States exploded bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Japan surrendered Aug. 14, ending World War II.
The Associated Press
