Manhattan Project National Historical Park is a United States

National Historical Park National Historic Site (NHS) and National Historical Park (NHP) are designations for officially recognized areas of nationally historic significance in the United States. They are usually owned and managed by the federal government. An NHS usually ...

commemorating the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the ...

that is run jointly by the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

and Department of Energy. The park consists of three units: one in

Oak Ridge, Tennessee Oak Ridge is a city in Anderson County, Tennessee, Anderson and Roane County, Tennessee, Roane counties in the East Tennessee, eastern part of the U.S. state of Tennessee, about west of downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, Knoxville. Oak Ridge's po ...

, one in

Los Alamos, New Mexico Los Alamos (, meaning ''The Poplars'') is a census-designated place in Los Alamos County, New Mexico, United States, that is recognized as one of the development and creation places of the Nuclear weapon, atomic bomb—the primary objective of ...

and one in Hanford, Washington. It was established on November 10, 2015 when Secretary of the Interior

Sally Jewell Sarah Margaret "Sally" Roffey Jewell (born February 21, 1956) is a British-American business executive and environmentalist who served as the 51st United States secretary of the interior in the Obama administration from 2013 to 2017. Jewell was ...

and

Secretary of Energy The United States secretary of energy is the head of the United States Department of Energy, a member of the Cabinet of the United States and fifteenth in the presidential line of succession. The position was created on October 1, 1977, when P ...

Ernest Moniz Ernest Jeffrey Moniz, Order of Prince Henry, GCIH (; born December 22, 1944) is an American nuclear physicist and former government official. From May 2013 to January 2017, he served as the 13th United States secretary of energy in the Obama admi ...

signed the memorandum of agreement that defined the roles that the two agencies had when managing the park. The Department of Energy had owned and managed most of the properties located within the three different sites. For over ten years, the DoE worked with the National Park Service and federal, state and local governments and agencies with the intention of turning places of importance into a National Historical Park. After several years of surveying the three sites and five other possible alternatives, the two agencies officially recommended a historical park be established in Hanford, Los Alamos and Oak Ridge. The Department of Energy would continue to manage and own the sites while the National Park Service would provide interpretive services, visitor centers and park rangers. After two unsuccessful attempts at passing a bill in Congress authorizing the park in 2012 and 2013, the House and Senate ultimately passed the bill in December 2014, with President Obama signing the National Defense Authorization Act shortly thereafter which authorized the Manhattan Project National Historical Park.

Sites

The Manhattan Project National Historical Park protects many structures associated with the Manhattan Project, but only some are open for touring.

Hanford, Washington

* B Reactor National Historic Landmark – bus tours are available by advance reservation * the previous Hanford High School in the former Town of Hanford and Hanford Construction Camp Historic District * Bruggemann's Agricultural Warehouse Complex * White Bluffs Bank and Hanford Irrigation District Pump House

Los Alamos, New Mexico

The Los Alamos Visitor Center for the Manhattan Project NHP is located at 475 20th Street in downtown Los Alamos. This location is open Friday through Monday from 10 am to 3 pm. It is in the Los Alamos Community Building on the front left as you face the building from the street (next to the Los Alamos Teen Center). Visitors can learn about the Manhattan Project and related sites in the vicinity. There are three areas of the park located on

Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development Laboratory, laboratories of the United States Department of Energy National Laboratories, United States Department of Energy ...

property. These locations are only open to the public by special bus tours organized by the Department of Energy: * Gun Site Facilities: three bunkered buildings (TA-8-1, TA-8-2, and TA-8-3), and a portable guard shack (TA-8-172). * V-Site Facilities: TA-16-516 and TA-16-517 V-Site Assembly Building * Pajarito Site: TA-18-1 Slotin Building, TA-8-2 Battleship Control Building, and the TA-18-29

Pond A pond is a small, still, land-based body of water formed by pooling inside a depression (geology), depression, either naturally or artificiality, artificially. A pond is smaller than a lake and there are no official criteria distinguishing ...

Cabin.

Oak Ridge, Tennessee

The American Museum of Science and Energy provides bus tours of several buildings in the Clinton Engineer Works including the: * X-10 Graphite Reactor * Buildings 9731 and 9204-3 at the Y-12 complex * East Tennessee Technology Park, located on the site of the K-25 Building The Oak Ridge History Museum concentrates on the social impact on Oak Ridge from the Manhattan Project.

References

External links