Manhattan Project

Join Stephen Ambrose Historical Tours for on a journey through the new Manhattan Project National Historic Park System on our exclusive new Manhattan Project Tour. Follow the progress of the uranium bomb from its early stages at Oak Ridge to the successful testing at White Sands, New Mexico.

Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the establishment of the Manhattan Project in 1942 with the primary purpose of creating an atomic bomb. The goal was two-fold: develop the atomic bomb for fear the Germans would have it first, and advance American victory in WWII. The project would involve the U.S. military and some of the world’s leading scientific minds. Their work would usher in the nuclear age and forever change the world.

The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki hastened Japan’s surrender. However, most important was forcing an end to the war in the Pacific before an invasion of the Japanese Home Islands became necessary. Military experts urged using the bomb because it would prevent the loss of perhaps hundreds of thousands of U.S. soldiers as well as millions of Japanese.

Ultimately, the Manhattan Project would employ over 250,000 Americans who worked at universities, factories and laboratories across the nation. Their diligent work was hugely successful and ultimately American science and industry prevailed.

Our historians will take you through each phase of the project and encourage informal discussions throughout the tour. We will have the added benefit of local experts joining us to add their insights and detailed knowledge about the development, actual testing and the devastating effect of the atom bomb.

There is only one tour of this kind: the Manhattan Project Tour by Stephen Ambrose Historical Tours.

Tour Highlights

Historians