The Atomic Bomb & the Secret City

American History Hit

History Hit

America, History

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 22 September 2022

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1939 Franklin D Roosevelt received a letter from Albert Einstein, warning him that the Nazis might be developing nuclear weapons. America has to act fast.

What follows is the creation of a secret city in the rural area of Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Around 75,000 people moved to the secret city during the World War Two, and the first atomic bomb was developed in just 28 months.

Don Wildman is joined by historian, Ray Smith, to find out how it was possible, and to hear about the experiences of the people who worked at Oak Ridge, most of whom didn't know what they were creating.

You can find out more here.

The senior producer was Charlotte Long. The producer was Benjie Guy. Mixed by Thomas Ntinas. Special thanks to Fendall Fulton.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Once upon a time in medieval England, there was a young king who would do just about anything for his favorite night.
0:06.5	They were inseparable.
0:08.5	With love at the front of a king's mind, instead of war or ambition, you'd think the kingdom would be in for a golden
0:15.0	era of peace. But England is headed for the most catastrophic collapse seen for hundreds of
0:20.4	years. The saga continues, Join me Dan Jones on This is History, a Dynasty to
0:26.4	Die for. Available wherever you get your podcasts. It is 1939 and Franklin Roosevelt has just received a letter.
0:45.0	It includes a warning that the Nazis might be developing a new powerful bomb which if carried by boat and exploded in a port
0:55.3	might very well destroy the whole port together with the surrounding territory.
1:01.6	The letter is from Albert Einstein.
1:04.0	America has to act fast.
1:06.0	What follows is the creation of a secret city,
1:09.0	built on quiet rural land in eastern Tennessee.
1:12.0	This is the story of Oak Ridge, the secret city
1:17.0	which helped build the first atomic bomb. We lived in a house right next to the store. The dates, as I remember, in 1942 around August,
1:36.4	government representatives came in and told dead, all the people in the area, you will be out of here by Thanksgiving.
1:47.0	Okay I'm June Adamson and I came to Oak Ridge in 1943s. We didn't like it one bit, but on the other hand I was glad
1:57.1	to get out of Salt Lake City. I grew up in Salt Lake and I always wanted to leave there.
2:02.2	So he said that in Manhattan Project in World War II,
2:05.0	that the atomic bomb was conceived, designed, built, and tested
2:11.0	in 28 months.
2:12.9	And I'd been here in Oak Ridge for over 30 years.
2:16.4	You could knock be over with a feather.
	...

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