Plutonium Test Bomb

Plutonium production for the Manhattan Project was no small undertaking.  It required a grand-scale collaborative effort of industrial contractors and teams of physicists in four different facilities to develop and produce enough plutonium for the first atomic bomb.

In this photo, members of the Manhattan Project hoist the plutonium bomb atop its 100-foot firing tower on July 15, 1945.  It was one day before the bomb was detonated in the Trinity Test.

Credits

"The Gadget," at its test tower - image online, courtesy the Truman Library.