The Manhattan Project

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Locations Map

B Reactor The B Reactor at Hanford was built and operated by DuPont and was the world's first production-scale nuclear reactor. B Reactor was the first of...	Cambridge Harvard University Harvard became an important center for nuclear physics research during the early twentieth century. After Ernest O'Lawrence...
Columbia University Important Manhattan Project research was conducted at Columbia University’s Pupin Hall (right) and Schermerhorn Hall. World-class physicists,...	Dayton Dayton, Ohio was another site of the secret Manhattan Project work. In July 1943, Oppenheimer assigned Charles A. Thomas the task of separating...
Decatur The Houdaille-Hershey Plant was a secret Manhattan Project site located in Decatur, Illinois that was responsible for plating the interior of pipes...	Gun Site The Gun Site (TA-8-1) was where Manhattan Project scientists and engineers developed and tested the gun-type weapon design. The design for the “...
Hanford Hanford, Washington, on the beautiful Columbia River, was the site selected for the full-scale plutonium production plant, the B Reactor. Today a...	Jackson Square Jackson Square was the heart of Oak Ridge’s business district. Originally Town Center No. 1, the name Jackson Square was adopted in February 1945 as...
K-25 The K-25 Plant in Oak Ridge used the gaseous diffusion process to enrich uranium. Gaseous Diffusion Process The K-25 plant was an enormously...	Los Alamos Los Alamos, New Mexico, was the site of Project Y, or the top-secret atomic weapons laboratory directed by J. Robert Oppenheimer. The site was so...
Los Alamos Ranch School In 1918, entrepreneur Ashley Pond began an "outdoor school" at Los Alamos to provide boys a chance to gain health, strength and self-confidence. The...	Metallurgical Laboratory One of the most important branches of the Manhattan Project was the Metallurgical Laboratory (Met Lab) in Chicago. Using the name "Metallurgical...
Nash Garage Building Located at 3280 Broadway, the Nash Garage Building was originally an automobile dealership which was purchased by Columbia University and converted...	Oak Ridge In 1942, General Leslie Groves approved Oak Ridge, Tennessee, as the site for the pilot plutonium plant and the uranium enrichment plant. Manhattan...
Princeton University Princeton University was a hotbed for nuclear physics research during the early twentieth century. Much of the research conducted at Princeton...	S-50 With both the K-25 and Y-12 plants suffering setbacks in the spring of 1944, Oppenheimer urged Groves to approve the construction of a thermal...
Santa Fe Santa Fe was the first stop for many scientists, engineers, Women's Army Corps, military police and all others assigned to work on the top-secret...	T-Plant In early 1944, DuPont, the operating contractor at Hanford, foresaw the need for four chemical separation facilities. These facilities, designated...
Tinian Island Tinian Island was the launching point for the atomic bomb attacks against Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. One of three islands in the Northern...	Trinity Site The birth of nuclear weapons occurred on July 16, 1945 at the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range in New Mexico, 230 miles south of Los Alamos....
University of California-Berkeley The "Rad Lab" was the short name for the Radiological Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. Its director was Nobel laureate Ernest O...	V-Site Located in a bucolic setting surrounded by tall pines, these humble wooden and asbestos-shingled buildings were where the world's first atomic device...
Wendover Air Field Wendover Air Field was chosen as the rear training base for the 509th Composite Group because of its isolation. It is located in the salt flats...	X-10 The X-10 Graphite Reactor was the first reactor built after the successful experimental “Chicago Pile I” at the University of Chicago. On...
Y-12 The Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge used the electromagnetic separation method, developed by Ernest Lawrence at University of California-Berkeley, to...