ound zero was a crater almost 2,400 feet across
and about ten feet deep in places. Desert sand around the tower had been
fused by the intense heat of the blast into a jade colored glass. This
atomic glass was given the name Atomsite, but the name was later changed
to Trinitite.

Due to the intense secrecy surrounding the test, no accurate information
of what happened was released to the public until after the second
atomic bomb had been dropped on Japan. However, many people in New
Mexico were well aware that something extraordinary had happened the
morning of July 16, 1945. The blinding flash of light, followed by the
shock wave had made a vivid impression on people who lived within a
radius of 160 miles of ground zero. Windows were shattered 120 miles
away in Silver City, and residents of Albuquerque saw the bright light
of the explosion on the southern horizon and felt the tremor of the
shock waves moments later.

The true story of the Trinity test first became known to the public on
August 6, 1945. This is when the world's second nuclear bomb, nicknamed
Little Boy, exploded 1,850 feet over Hiroshima, Japan, destroying a
large portion of the city and killing an estimated 70,000 to 130,000
of its inhabitants. Three days later on August 9, a third atomic bomb
devastated the city of Nagasaki and killed approximately 45,000 more
Japanese. The Nagasaki weapon was a plutonium bomb, similar to the
Trinity device, and it was nicknamed Fat Man. On Tuesday August 14, at 7
p.m. Eastern War Time, President Truman made a brief formal announcement
that Japan had finally surrendered and World War II was over after
almost six years and 60 million deaths!

On Sunday, September 9, 1945, Trinity Site was opened to the press
for the first time. This was mainly to dispel rumors of lingering high
radiation levels there, as well as in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Led
by General Groves and Oppenheimer, this widely publicized visit made
Trinity front page news all over the country.

Trinity Site was later encircled with more than a mile of chain link
fencing and posted with signs warning of radioactivity. In the early
1950s most of the remaining Trinitite in the crater was bulldozed into
a underground concrete bunker near Trinity. Also at this time the crater
was back filled with new soil. In 1963 the Trinitite was removed
from the bunker, packed into 55-gallon drums, and loaded into trucks
belonging to the Atomic Energy Commission (the succe