Quote on John Barnes Blogsite

Transporting the Trinity Site bomb (The Gadget) to the tower

 

The Picture below shows the transporter used to move the Trinity Site

test bomb to its detonation tower, near Alamogordo in New Mexico in 1945.

The bomb was codenamed "the gadget", and was a plutonium 'atomic' bomb.

 

The transporter consisted of a platform supported by 8 rows of 8 wheels

(64 wheels in total), drawn by a tractor.

 

 

Trinity Site test bomb transporter.

  The transporter used for the Trinity Site test bomb. Note the 8 rows of 8 wheels.

   The large plutonium bomb was so heavy, it required the massive portable platform

    to move it to the tower site.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next picture is a front view of the transporter, showing the tractor, and an extra

tractor in case of a mechanical breakdown. The transporter was accompanied by

troops in jeeps.

 

 

 

 Trinity Site test bomb transporter - front view.

   Front view showing a tractor hauling the bomb mounted on a 64 wheel platform.

   Note the stand-by tractor on the right.

 

 

 

The third picture shows the tower where the massive bomb was successfully detonated

on July 16, 1945, just before dawn. The bomb is located inside the hut on top of the

tower. The detonation marked the world's first atomic bomb explosion.

 

 

Bomb tower where "The Gadget" was detonated on July 16, 1945.

 

 

 

The bomb was a product of the Manhatten Project, and most of the Los

Alamos scientists who developed the bomb were present at the detonation,

including the technical supervisor J. Robert Oppenheimer.

The man in overall charge of the project, General Leslie Groves, was also

present.

 

The secrecy of the Manhatten Project was so tight, that, according to physicist

Robert Christy, none of the scientists present at the test site that day, had any idea

that another atomic bomb (a uranium bomb codenamed "Little Boy") had already

been shipped out to the Pacific area with the intention of dropping it on a Japanese

city.