Manhattan Project National Historical Park

Oak Ridge, TN was instrumental in the United States win over Nazi Germany during WWII because of the development of the atomic bomb. Known as the “Secret City”, Oak Ridge was not on any maps and 100,000 workers were brought to the city to work on a Top Secret war project, known as the Manhattan Project.

The Manhattan Project is the story of generals, physicists, chemists, mathematicians, engineers, brought together to broaden the limits of human knowledge and technological achievements in ways never before imagined. It is also the story of death and destruction associated with WWII, and a new weapon capable of unimagined levels of devastation, produced by workers who had no idea they were working on the device that would end the war.

The Manhattan Project National Historical Park consists of three sites - Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Los Alamos, New Mexico; and Hanford, Washington. The Oak Ridge site tells the story of the people, events, science and engineering that led to the creation of the atomic bomb, which helped end World War II.

The visitor contact station for Oak Ridge is located at Children's Museum of Oak Ridge.