We are off on a road trip over to New Mexico.
We went to Los Alamos and Alomogordo last year and visited the museums dedicated to the nuclear bomb but what we didn't realize then, was that twice a year the Trinity Site was opened to the public.
Of course we were there the wrong weekend and then ,when it was open last October, we were buying this house so couldn't get away. It is open again this Saturday so we are driving over to see it.
The Trinity Site is where the first atomic bomb was tested on July 16, 1945. Part of the Manhattan Project, this was the test of 'the gadget' prior to using nuclear weapons on Nagasaki or Hiroshima.
The land is military owned and on the site there now stands a small monument.
We went to Los Alamos and Alomogordo last year and visited the museums dedicated to the nuclear bomb but what we didn't realize then, was that twice a year the Trinity Site was opened to the public.
Of course we were there the wrong weekend and then ,when it was open last October, we were buying this house so couldn't get away. It is open again this Saturday so we are driving over to see it.
The Trinity Site is where the first atomic bomb was tested on July 16, 1945. Part of the Manhattan Project, this was the test of 'the gadget' prior to using nuclear weapons on Nagasaki or Hiroshima.
The land is military owned and on the site there now stands a small monument.
In addition to this you can take a bus over the McDonald ranch house. A regular house that was 'acquired' by the government and where the plutonium core for the bomb was assembled.
I've stood on on the same ground where many historical events occurred but nothing that changed the world as radically as this.
When I was a teenager the threat of nuclear war was real and it terrified me. We saw movies of the devastation and were taught what to do if nuclear war broke out. Given that it involved plastic sheeting and duct tape I doubt it would have been effective but I guess it made people feel better.
I joined CND when I was about 11 and protested for nuclear disarmament...yes I was a bit of a hippy :-)
I never imagined I'd one day stand on the ground where it all started.