I'm in Las Vegas on Fremont Street. There's live music. There's a zip line. There's a zipline. There's a lady doing tricks with a whip.

Before the big name glitzy casinos of the strip were built, Fremont Street was the heart of Las Vegas.

We are talking Rat Pack Las Vegas. Back in the 1950s, this is where people came to have fun.

But in those days, the main attraction was a little different.

Back then, you'd climb up to the roof of a casino,

party all night long, and then just before dawn broke you would turn toward the desert to see the big show.

I'm not talking about a show like Frank Sinatra here. I'm talking about

an explosion of an atomic bomb.

I'm Amanda McGowan and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world's strange, incredible, and

wondrous places.

Today we're heading to the National Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada to

explore a time in American history when weapons of mass destruction were a tourist

destination.

That's up for this. For a few weeks in June, my boyfriend and I went on a cross-country road trip. Boston to Southern California.

Totally rad.

And so, of course, we had to stop in Las Vegas. Southern California, totally rad.

And so of course we had to stop in Las Vegas

and did a little bit of gambling,

went to a magic show, don't judge.

But there was something else that I wanted to see.

The National Atomic Testing Museum.

This nuclear chain reaction causes a tremendous explosion.

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