Oppenheimer's secret city!

In 1943, P.O. Box 1663 in Santa Fe, New Mexico was listed as an address. Interestingly, around 300 babies had their birth certificates indicating this P.O. Box as their place of birth. However, this was all a cover-up as the real location was a secret. The truth was that everything sent to that P.O. Box was redirected to a site located 33 miles away from Santa Fe. This site was known by various names such as P.O. Box 180, Project Y, and Los Alamos, New Mexico. It was a clandestine city that housed a community of scientists from different nations. These scientists were the ones responsible for creating the first nuclear bomb. Surprisingly, they lived a couple hundred miles away from the actual testing site in the New Mexico desert known as Trinity. One might wonder how J. Robert Oppenheimer, the laboratory director, ended up building a town and testing the nuclear bomb there.

Well, it all started with a letter sent by Albert Einstein to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on August 2nd, 1939. In this letter, Einstein warned of the potential of a nuclear chain reaction using uranium, which could result in the development and use of extremely powerful bombs. After years of study and America's entry into World War II, the Manhattan Project was established in June 1942. Its temporary headquarters were located at 270 Broadway in New York City. This project, also known as the Manhattan District, was under the Army Corps of Engineers and aimed to build an atomic weapon. Various secret locations were involved in this project, including a nuclear reactor beneath a University of Chicago football field and the Alabama Ordnance Works for producing heavy water. In 1942 and 1943, three major sites were established, starting with Oak Ridge, Tennessee, also referred to as Y-12, a large facility dedicated to uranium enrichment and plutonium production emerged, nestled amidst mountains. It transformed into a bustling city where 75,000 individuals toiled in utmost secrecy, working on history's most sensational secret. In 1943, two other significant sites were established. The Hanford Engineer Works in Washington state played a crucial role in plutonium production. At the top of its water tower, a sign boldly proclaimed, "Silence means security." However, Hanford and Oak Ridge were incomplete without the third site. The army required a location to develop the bomb. This gave birth to the Los Alamos Lament, a poem penned by Technical Sergeant Ralph Gates, which shed light on life in Los Alamos. The poem began with the words, "I'm just a PO number," with specific numbers varying. The third verse, sung by a woman's voice, described being placed on a mountain outside Santa Fe, where the only wildlife in sight were GI wolves at bay.

Oppenheimer, who resided in Berkeley, believed that a central laboratory was essential. While Oak Ridge and Chicago were considered as potential lab sites, they were not remote enough. A location near Los Angeles lacked isolation, and one closer to Reno risked heavy snowfall. General Leslie Groves Jr. of the Army Corps of Engineers led the project. Both Oppenheimer and Groves agreed that New Mexico offered the desired security of isolation, along with familiarity, as Oppenheimer had spent time in the area. The perfect site was found on the Pajarito Plateau, isolated and protected by its altitude and surrounding geography. Initially, Jemez Springs was chosen but proved too challenging to acquire due to difficult land and rugged terrain. However, nearby Los Alamos, situated on a table land between mesas, provided easy control over entry and any potential accidents. Moreover, a significant portion of the land was already federally-owned. The only existing structure was a small school established in 1935, which the owners sold. Recognizing the military necessity, the Secretary of War corresponded with the Secretary of Agriculture to acquire the remaining federally-owned lands.