Historical Entry—Monday, July 16, 1945
Sunrise was scheduled for 6:08 a.m., but at 5:30 a.m., a false sunrise shattered the darkness. Gadget exploded in a flash of light and a fury of sound, shaking the ground for nearly 160 miles around.
Project Trinity was a major milestone in the Manhattan Project, the United States top secret program to develop atomic weapons. The name was coined by the first director of the Los Alamos Laboratory, J. Robert Oppenheimer. He later said in a letter to General Leslie Groves, the leader of the Manhattan Project:
“Why I chose the name is not clear, but I know what thoughts were in my mind. There is a poem of John Donne, written just before his death, which I know and love. From it a quotation: ‘What shall my west hurt me? As west and east / In all flat maps (and I am one) are one, / So death doth touch the resurrection.’ That does not make a Trinity, but in another, better known devotional poem Donne opens, ‘Batter my heart, three person’d God.’ Beyond this, I have no clues whatever.”
While Oppenheimer may not have remembered exactly what prompted his naming of the project, the name itself became history.
Another term would go on to become common due to the test. The 100-foot steel tower which “Gadget”, the code name for the 18.6 kiloton implosion-design plutonium bomb, was hoisted on was designated Zero. The foot of the tower was designated Ground Zero, a term now commonly applied to the impact point of a weapon, the start of an event (a riot, an earthquake, or an outbreak), and would later be the name of the footprint of the original World Trade Centers after the attack on 9/11. It was hoisted on the grounds of the White Sands Missile Range, which itself had only been established one week earlier.
Observers gathered on the morning of 16 July in bunkers made of wood and protected by concrete and earthen barriers. The nearest of these observation posts was 5.7 miles away from Zero. Even this far away, they were subjected to the intense light, sound, and heat of the explosion.
The bomb was detonated at exactly 5:29 a.m. local. A massive fireball roared into the now well-lit sky, followed by a mushroom-shaped cloud that would grow to a height of over 38,000 feet in less than seven minutes. Fierce winds from the overpressure wave tore at the buildings. The blast vaporized the tower and tore a crater a half mile in diameter with a depth of eight feet into the earth. Sand in the crater and nearby was fused by the heat and pressure of the explosion. It was glass-like with a jade green color. The material was named trinitite after the test.
People as far away as 200 miles felt and saw the blast. A U.S. Navy pilot flying at 10,000 feet near Albuquerque, New Mexico, said the blast lit up the cockpit of his plane and there seemed to be a sun rising to the south. When he radioed Air Traffic Control for news, he was simply told, “Don’t fly south.”
The information given to local news organizations was “A remotely located ammunition magazine containing a considerable amount of high explosives and pyrotechnics exploded, but there was no loss of life or limb to anyone.” The truth of the test blast wouldn’t be released until after the bombings of Hiroshima, Japan less than a month later on August 6.
Trinity marked the beginning of the nuclear weapons age. “Gadget” was the first atomic weapon ever used. Its test would be followed by the only two uses of nuclear weapons in wartime. “Little Boy” (the first uranium-based explosion) was dropped on Hiroshima and three days later “Fat Man” on Nagasaki. The bombings prompted the surrender of the Japanese Empire and the end of World War Two. The nuclear weapons age had begun.
Trinity test conducted
Historical Event
1945
This Day in Science Fiction History examines notable events, real and fictional, concerning fantasy and science fiction in various media.
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