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TRINITY
 

MS. FIRST TOURIST:
“I think it is awe inspiring because what took place here altered the history of the world, and I feel, like I said, a little awe struck by being here.”

MS. SECOND TOURIST:
“It’s very interesting -- it’s scary.”

NARRATOR
TWICE A YEAR, TOURISTS COME BY THE THOUSANDS TO WANDER THE NEW MEXICAN DESERT AND STARE AT THE ARTIFACTS. THEY LINE UP TO SEE THE LITTLE PIECES OF GREEN GLASS CALLED TRINITITE CREATED BY MELTING DESERT SAND. THEY FILE ALONG THE CIRCULAR CHAIN LINK FENCE HUNG WITH OLD PHOTOGRAPHS AND THEY STARE AT THE ROOM ON THE MCDONALD RANCH WHERE THE DEVICE WAS ASSEMBLED.

BUT MOST OF ALL, THEY COME TO BE PHOTOGRAPHED TO STAND BY THE OBELISK THAT MARKS THE SPOT -- THE TRINITY SITE -- WHERE IT ALL BEGAN, 54 YEARS AGO ON JULY 16, JUST BEFORE DAWN, WHEN THE WORLD CHANGED FOREVER.

NAT SOUND: Bomb Blast

NARRATION
THESE MURKY IMAGES ARE ALL THAT REMAIN OF THAT FIRST NUCLEAR EXPLOSION. THE EFFECTS WERE CALLED BOTH MAGNIFICENT AND TERRIFYING. WITHIN A MONTH, THE BOMB WAS USED AGAIN, THIS TIME ON THE JAPANESE CITIES OF HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI. THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC ENDED IN DAYS. THE ATOMIC AGE WAS BORN.

IN 1975, THE TRINITY SITE WAS DECLARED A NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK. IT’S LOCATED ON A TOP-SECRET MILITARY PROVING GROUND AND FOR THAT REASON IS ONLY OPEN TWO DAYS A YEAR.

MR. FIRST TOURIST:
“It’s awesome power. I hear a lot of people think that we did the wrong thing using this, but it saved millions and millions of lives by using it.”

MR. SECOND TOURIST:
“In July of ‘45 my father was on the north end of Okinawa preparing for the invasion of Japan. He was scheduled in the third wave of the invasion in December of 1945 and later found out after the war was over, obviously he never had to proceed with the invasion because of the events that took place after the Trinity Site detonation. But he was told by an intelligence officer at Oklahoma State University, when he went to college on the GI Bill later, that his particular unit was projected to suffer at least 80 percent casualties. So in which case had this site not existed, this conversation might not even be taking place.”

MR. THIRD TOURIST:
 “It is very hard to describe -- this is where the first atomic bomb ever was detonated. It ushered in an age that both brought wonders and terrors. I’m glad that the United States did it and not Germany or Russia at the time because I think the world would not be as pleasant a place.”

NARRATOR:
FIFTY-FOUR YEARS AGO RALPH AND WILLIAM NOBLES, TWO BROTHERS, WERE YOUNG TECHNICIANS ON THE MANHATTAN PROJECT. THEY ARE PART OF THE DWINDLING NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO WERE ACTUALLY THERE THE DAY THE BOMB WENT OFF. IT’S A DAY, A MOMENT, THEY WILL NEVER FORGET.

MR. RALPH NOBLES:
“When it went off, all of the mountains around here were lighted up like brilliant daylight, and then I felt the heat on the back of my head and through my shirt. Then I turned around and looked and I had a plate of wood in which I had cut a square hole and fit with welders’ glasses. Then I watched through the welders’ glasses. I have never seen anything like that; it’s just indescribable. At least with my feeble vocabulary.”

MR. WILLIAM NOBLES:
“When the explosion rose out of the desert like this very brilliant hard hemisphere, and this tremendous flash of light and about that time I got flash blinded for a short period of time. My vision quickly recovered, so then I saw the mushroom lifting up from the ground and all of the purple and the vivid colors that were due to the ionization effects as it lifted on up, and then gradually faded out.”

NARRATOR:
THE SHOCKWAVE FROM THAT FIRST BLAST BROKE WINDOWS 200 KILOMETERS AWAY, AND IT CHANGED THE WORLD FOREVER. LITTLE REMAINS NOW. ONLY HINTS OF WHAT WAS, OF THE POWER UNLEASHED. IT IS A SOLEMN REMINDER, THOUGH, OF THE DAY -- WHEN THE SUN ROSE TWICE.

STEVE FRANK, VOA-TV.