Trinity

Trinity

The uranium and plutonium bombs progressed to the test stage. The search for a suitable test site began in May 1944. The test site required a relatively flat location, isolated from populated areas, and good weather. The test site needed to be within a reasonable distance of Los Alamos. Eight sites in four western states were visited.
One of the eight sites, the Jornada del Muerto Valley met the requirements. The 2,035,000-acre Alamogordo Bombing Range in south-central New Mexico was already under U.S. Government control. Located 230 miles south of Los Alamos, a portion of it was selected and code-named Trinity.

McDonald Ranch House

The George McDonald ranch house was renovated for a field laboratory. In early 1942 the McDonalds vacated their ranch house and marginal range land when it became part of the 3,200-square mile Alamogordo Bombing Range.

100-Foot Steel Tower

This tower of pre-fabricated steel was erected at Trinity site’s Ground Zero. The tower at Ground Zero was shipped to Trinity site in sections. Concrete footings poured 20 feet into the desert supported it.

At its top, the tower had an oak platform surrounded on three sides with sheets of corrugated iron. The iron shack’s open side faced toward the camera bunker to the west.

The First Atomic Test

The Trinity Device being lifted to the top of the 100-foot steel tower. Ground Zero is at the base of the tower. The Trinity Test was originally set for July 4, 1945. However, final preparations for the test, which included the assembly of its plutonium core, did not begin in earnest until Thursday, July 12. After assembly, the core was placed into a “gadget” as the bomb was called, and raised to the top of the 100-foot tower on Saturday, July 14. When the device reached the top of the tower without mishap, installation of the explosive detonators began.

The First Atomic Device

On Monday, July 16, 1945, at 5:29:45 a.m., the first atomic device detonated at the Trinity Test Site.

Detonated 10 miles north of the base camp, the first atomic explosion created a fireball that fused desert sand into a green glass-like solid. The bomb crater measured nearly 2,400 feet across and was 10 feet deep in places. Scientist Isidor Rabi watched from the Base Camp, recalling:

“We were lying there, very tense, in the early dawn, and there were just a few streaks of gold in the east; you could see your neighbor very dimly. Those ten seconds were the longest ten seconds I have ever experienced. Suddenly, there was an enormous flash of light, the brightest light I have ever seen or that I think anyone has ever seen. It blasted; it pounced; it bore its way right thorough you. It was a vision which was seen with more than the eye. It was seen to last forever. You would wish it would stop; altogether it lasted about two seconds…. A new thing had just been born; a new control; a new understanding of man, which man had acquired over nature.”
(From Richard Rhodes, “The Making of the Atomic Bomb”)

First Atomic Blast

The Trinity test succeeded. In late July 1945, President Truman reached the decision to use atomic weapons in the war with Japan and the Nuclear Age had begun.

J. Robert Oppenheimer, who had directed the project, said: “We waited until the blast had passed, walked out of the shelter and then it was extremely solemn. 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 he 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.”
(From Richard Rhodes, “The Making of the Atomic Bomb”)