The Covert Genesis of Los Alamos: Oppenheimer's Secret City
Los Alamos, New Mexico, was a secret city created during the development of the atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project. It housed scientists such as Oppenheimer, Fermi, Teller, and Feynman, along with their families. The population grew rapidly, with maternity wards and accommodations like hutments and apartment buildings being constructed. Other secret sites involved in the project included the University of Chicago, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the Hanford Engineer Works in Washington State. Los Alamos became the site where the bomb was created, and it was there that Oppenheimer witnessed the Trinity test and famously said, "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."