The Trinity Site at White Sands Missile Range (only opened 2x a year to the public)
2 miles from ground zero is the The McDonald Ranch House where the bomb was assembled and its explosion witnessed. 5,038 feet above sea level = where the windmill once was.
Seen here are:
- Jumbo–a 25′ tall, 12′ wide, 214 ton steel container designed to contain the explosion and designed to house the first atomic bomb. Jumbo was shipped via rail from Ohio and unloaded at Pope onto a 64-wheel trailer. It was instead placed under a steel tower 800 yards from ground zero and on April 16, 1946 (500lb bombs were detonated in the bottom of Jumbo, blowing off both ends of the container.
- Ground Zero
- Fat Man Atomic Bomb Casing (similar to the one used on Nagasaki, Japan Aug. 9, 1945)
- Trinitite – the green glassy substance found at ground zero contains several radioactive elements and is an alpha and beta particle emitter. It is against the law to remove it from within the fenced in portion of ground zero.
- Inside the McDonald Ranch House – the assembly room, where the world’s first nuclear device was assembled on July 13, 1945 and later detonated on July 16, 1945 two miles away at the Trinity Site.
- White Sands Missle Testing Range
- The McDonald Ranch House
Fun Fact: one receives about 0.5-1.0 millirem of radiation at ground zero (we receive 40 millirems from our food each year, 26-96 from the sun, and 2 millirems from flying coast to coast via jet)
