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DOE OSTI · 1699426

Preserving Manhattan Project historic sites

Creel, Jonathan David
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Abstract

Beginning in 1943, Project Y – the code name for Los Alamos during World War II – transformed the isolated Pajarito Plateau. The sounds of construction equipment replaced the voices of the Los Alamos Ranch School boys and local homesteaders. Construction crews hurriedly built many structures on mesa tops and in the canyons of Los Alamos. Countless concerns flooded Manhattan Project staff, but designing structures to withstand the test of time was not one of them. The top-secret race to develop an atomic bomb before Nazi Germany was on and everyone felt the pressure. Over the next 75 years, some of the structures slumped into disrepair from exposure to the harsh northern New Mexico environment - concrete cracking and spalling, wood frames rotting. That’s where Los Alamos National Laboratory’s historic preservation team enters the Manhattan Project story.

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45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATIONlasersnuclear

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Creel, Jonathan David. 2020-10-29. Preserving Manhattan Project historic sites. https://doi.org/10.2172/1699426

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