Explore the real-world places that appear in The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes. Each location on the map shows what happens there in the novel, the real history of the place, and what's there today. Featured locations include University of Göttingen, Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry, Berlin, University of Copenhagen — Niels Bohr Institute, Columbia University — Pupin Hall, University of Chicago — Stagg Field and 9 more.
Göttingen, Germany — Cradle of theoretical physics
Rhodes portrays Göttingen as the intellectual seedbed of the quantum revolution. Max Born, Werner Heisenberg, and a constellation of brilliant young physicists worked through the mathematics of atomic structure here in the 1920s. Oppenheimer himself came to Göttingen to study under Born, writing his doctoral dissertation there. Rhodes depicts the ferment of these years — seminars crackling with argument, the informal café culture where equations were scrawled on napkins — as the essential theoretical groundwork without which the bomb would have been impossible.
The University of Göttingen was founded in 1737 and became one of the world's premier centers of mathematics and physics in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Figures including Gauss, Riemann, Hilbert, and later Born and Heisenberg worked there. The Nazi purge of Jewish faculty in 1933 gutted the institution and scattered its talent to Britain and America.
The Georg-August-Universität Göttingen remains a leading research university with roughly 31,000 students. The historic physics institute buildings still stand, and the city maintains a 'Nobel Laureate Walk' commemorating the many prize-winners associated with the university.
Visit: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen (historic site)
Thielallee 63, Dahlem, Berlin — Site of nuclear fission's discovery
It was in the radiochemistry laboratory of this Berlin institute that Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann, in December 1938, performed the experiment that split the uranium nucleus — nuclear fission. Rhodes describes the moment in painstaking detail: Hahn writing to his former colleague Lise Meitner in exile in Sweden, barely able to believe their results. Meitner and her nephew Otto Frisch then worked out the theoretical explanation over a Christmas walk in the Swedish snow. Rhodes frames this discovery as the hinge on which the entire history of the bomb turns.
The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry was established in 1912 in the Berlin suburb of Dahlem. Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner worked there for decades before Meitner was forced to flee Nazi Germany in 1938. Hahn received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1944 for the discovery of fission, a prize many felt should have included Meitner.
The original institute building in Dahlem, now part of the Freie Universität Berlin campus, still stands and bears a commemorative plaque marking the site of fission's discovery. It is recognized as one of the most significant scientific addresses of the 20th century.
Visit: Hahn-Meitner-Bau, Freie Universität Berlin (historic site)
Blegdamsvej 17, Copenhagen, Denmark — The quantum center of the world
Niels Bohr's institute in Copenhagen is one of the great recurring settings in Rhodes's book. From the 1920s onward, the world's leading physicists — Heisenberg, Pauli, Dirac, Gamow — made pilgrimages here. Rhodes describes the famous 'Copenhagen spirit': rigorous debate, constant challenge, an atmosphere Bohr cultivated deliberately. Bohr himself escaped Nazi-occupied Denmark by small boat to Sweden in 1943, was then flown to Britain in a Mosquito bomber's bomb bay, and eventually arrived in Los Alamos as 'Nicholas Baker,' where he played a crucial advisory role in the bomb's development.
The Niels Bohr Institute was founded in 1920 with Bohr as its director and quickly became the world's leading center for theoretical physics. It was the site of foundational debates over quantum mechanics. Bohr's dramatic 1943 escape from German-occupied Denmark became one of the war's celebrated scientific rescue stories.
The Niels Bohr Institute remains an active research institution within the University of Copenhagen, conducting world-class work in physics and astronomy. Bohr's original villa on the grounds is preserved, and the institute welcomes visitors and hosts public lectures.
Visit: Niels Bohr Institute (historic site)
538 West 120th Street, New York City — First American fission experiments
Pupin Hall at Columbia was where Enrico Fermi and Leó Szilárd first confirmed nuclear fission in America in January 1939, just weeks after Hahn and Strassmann's Berlin discovery. Rhodes describes Fermi and Szilárd's urgent experiments in the basement cyclotron vault, racing to understand whether fission released enough neutrons to sustain a chain reaction. It was also at Columbia, in 1939, that Szilárd drafted the famous letter — ultimately signed by Einstein — that would be sent to President Roosevelt warning of the bomb's possibility.
Pupin Hall, completed in 1927 and named after physicist Michael Pupin, has been the center of Columbia's physics department for nearly a century. I.I. Rabi, who later worked on radar and the Manhattan Project, was also a prominent Columbia physicist. The building received a National Historic Landmark designation in 1966.
Pupin Hall continues to house Columbia University's physics department and remains an active research building. A historic marker commemorates the early fission experiments. The hall is part of Columbia's Morningside Heights campus, which is generally open to visitors.
Visit: Pupin Hall, Columbia University (historic site)
Ellis Avenue & 57th Street, Chicago, Illinois — CP-1 and the first chain reaction
Beneath the squash courts of the University of Chicago's Stagg Field, on December 2, 1942, Enrico Fermi supervised the world's first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction. Rhodes renders the scene with extraordinary precision: 49 layers of graphite and uranium bricks piled into 'Chicago Pile-1,' Fermi's slide rule calculations, the crowd of scientists watching as control rods were withdrawn one by one. When the reaction held, Fermi quietly announced it was complete, and Arthur Compton made a coded phone call to James Conant: 'The Italian navigator has just landed in the New World.'
Stagg Field had been the University of Chicago's football stadium before the school abolished its football program in 1939. The Manhattan Project chose its abandoned squash courts as the reactor site because of their secrecy and proximity to the Metallurgical Laboratory. The stadium was demolished in 1957.
The site is now home to the Regenstein Library. A bronze sculpture by Henry Moore, 'Nuclear Energy,' stands on the exact spot of CP-1 and was dedicated on the 25th anniversary of the first chain reaction in 1967. It is one of the most historically significant landmarks in American science.
Visit: Nuclear Energy Sculpture, University of Chicago (monument)
Los Alamos, New Mexico — The secret city where the bomb was designed
The mesa-top laboratory at Los Alamos is the book's central stage for its final third. J. Robert Oppenheimer, appointed scientific director, assembled the most remarkable collection of physicists ever gathered in one place — Fermi, Bethe, Teller, Kistiakowsky, von Neumann, Szilard — behind fences and under secrecy. Rhodes brings the community to life: the wooden buildings, the mud streets, the parties and square dances, the classified debates over implosion lens geometry, and the mounting moral weight on men who understood exactly what they were building.
Los Alamos was chosen by Oppenheimer and General Leslie Groves in late 1942, replacing a boys' ranch school on an isolated New Mexico plateau. The entire community — scientists, families, support staff — lived under military administration with post office box 1663 as their only address. At peak operation it housed some 6,000 people.
Los Alamos National Laboratory continues as a major U.S. nuclear research and defense facility. The Bradbury Science Museum in downtown Los Alamos offers extensive public exhibits on the Manhattan Project, the bomb's development, and the lab's ongoing work. The original Fuller Lodge and several historic buildings are preserved.
Visit: Bradbury Science Museum (museum)
Oak Ridge, Tennessee — Uranium enrichment complex
Rhodes devotes substantial attention to Oak Ridge, the massive industrial complex built to enrich uranium to weapons grade. General Groves's engineering empire here employed tens of thousands of workers — most of whom had no idea what they were producing. The Y-12 electromagnetic separation plant and K-25 gaseous diffusion plant worked in parallel to produce the highly enriched uranium-235 that became the core of Little Boy, the Hiroshima bomb. Rhodes emphasizes the sheer industrial scale: Oak Ridge consumed more electricity than some entire states.
Oak Ridge was built in secrecy beginning in 1942 on 59,000 acres of rural Tennessee farmland. At its wartime peak it had a population of 75,000, making it one of the largest cities in Tennessee — yet it appeared on no maps and its residents could not tell family members where they lived. It was declassified and incorporated as a city in 1949.
The American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge provides a comprehensive history of the Manhattan Project's Tennessee operations. The K-25 site has been largely demolished but is memorialized; the Y-12 National Security Complex continues restricted operations. The Manhattan Project National Historical Park has a significant Oak Ridge unit.
Visit: Manhattan Project National Historical Park — Oak Ridge (museum)
Richland, Washington — Plutonium production reactors
The Hanford Engineer Works in Washington State produced the plutonium for the Trinity test bomb and for Fat Man, dropped on Nagasaki. Rhodes explains the technological achievement: DuPont engineers built the B Reactor — the world's first large-scale nuclear reactor — along the Columbia River, using the river's water for cooling. The plutonium was chemically separated in massive canyon buildings and shipped to Los Alamos. Rhodes threads through the story the tragic irony that the local Wanapum people and farmers had their land condemned to create this facility with no explanation.
The Hanford Site was selected in January 1943 for its remoteness and access to Columbia River water. The town of Hanford and several smaller communities were condemned and evacuated to make room. The B Reactor, completed in September 1944, produced the first plutonium sufficient for a weapon. Hanford is now one of the most contaminated nuclear sites in the Western Hemisphere.
The B Reactor at Hanford is a National Historic Landmark and forms part of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. Ranger-led tours of the reactor are available and are among the most compelling historic site visits in the American West, allowing visitors inside the original reactor face.
Visit: Manhattan Project National Historical Park — B Reactor (historic site)
Jornada del Muerto desert, New Mexico — First atomic bomb detonation
Trinity — the first detonation of a nuclear device, on July 16, 1945 — is the emotional and narrative climax of Rhodes's book. At 5:29:45 a.m., the plutonium implosion device detonated atop a 100-foot steel tower, releasing energy equivalent to 21,000 tons of TNT. Rhodes renders the moment from multiple perspectives: Oppenheimer's later quotation of the Bhagavad Gita ('Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds'), Kenneth Bainbridge's remark to Oppenheimer ('Now we are all sons of bitches'), the blinding light visible 250 miles away, the shock wave knocking observers down at 10,000 yards.
The Trinity site in the Jornada del Muerto ('Journey of the Dead Man') desert was chosen for its remoteness and flat terrain. The detonation left a shallow crater and fused the desert sand into a glassy mineral later called trinitite. The event was kept secret — the Army issued a cover story about an ammunition dump explosion.
Trinity Site is part of White Sands Missile Range and is opened to the public twice a year — on the first Saturday of April and October — as part of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. Visitors can see the ground zero monument, the McDonald Ranch House where the plutonium core was assembled, and samples of trinitite.
Visit: Trinity Site, White Sands Missile Range (historic site)
Tinian, Northern Mariana Islands — Launch point for Hiroshima and Nagasaki missions
Rhodes's account of Tinian captures the strange contrast between the tranquil Pacific island and its apocalyptic purpose. From North Field — the largest airbase in the world at that time — the B-29 Enola Gay, piloted by Colonel Paul Tibbets, took off before dawn on August 6, 1945, carrying Little Boy. Three days later, Bockscar took off from the same field carrying Fat Man for Nagasaki. Rhodes describes the final assembly of the bombs in special air-conditioned pits, the briefings, the chaplain's prayers, and the crews' clinical professionalism in the face of what they were about to do.
Tinian was captured from Japan in August 1944 after intense fighting. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Seabees rapidly constructed North Field, with four parallel runways each two miles long — the world's busiest airport during the war. The 509th Composite Group, the specialized atomic bomb unit, was based there from mid-1945.
The runways of North Field are now largely reclaimed by jungle, but the two bomb loading pits where Little Boy and Fat Man were assembled remain intact and are accessible to visitors. They are designated National Historic Landmarks and maintained by the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Visit: Tinian North Field Atomic Bomb Pits (historic site)
Naka-ku, Hiroshima, Japan — Ground zero of Little Boy, August 6, 1945
Rhodes's account of the Hiroshima bombing is one of the most harrowing passages in the book, drawing on survivor testimony to reconstruct the moment of detonation at 8:15 a.m. The bomb exploded approximately 1,900 feet above Shima Hospital, near the Aioi Bridge that had been the aiming point. Rhodes describes the sequence: the blinding flash, the fireball, the blast wave demolishing the city, the firestorm, and then the slow, agonized suffering of radiation sickness among survivors. He estimated 70,000 dead immediately, with total deaths eventually reaching 140,000.
Hiroshima was selected as the primary target because it had been spared conventional bombing, making it an ideal test of the atomic bomb's destructive power. The city was the headquarters of the Second Army and a major military port. The T-shaped Aioi Bridge was chosen as the aiming point for its visual distinctiveness.
The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and Peace Memorial Park stand at the hypocenter. The Atomic Bomb Dome — the ruins of the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, one of the few structures near ground zero to remain standing — is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The museum draws over a million visitors annually.
Visit: Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum (museum)
Urakami, Nagasaki, Japan — Ground zero of Fat Man, August 9, 1945
Rhodes recounts how Nagasaki was actually the secondary target on August 9 — Bockscar's primary target, Kokura, was obscured by cloud cover and smoke from a nearby firestorm, so pilot Charles Sweeney turned south. Fat Man, the plutonium implosion bomb, detonated at 11:02 a.m. above the Urakami Valley, slightly north of the planned aiming point. The surrounding hills confined the blast, saving parts of the city but concentrating destruction in Urakami. Some 40,000 people died immediately; total deaths reached approximately 80,000. Rhodes notes the tragic irony that Urakami was home to Japan's oldest and largest Catholic community.
Nagasaki had been the site of Japan's only open port during the centuries of national isolation and had a unique multicultural heritage. The Urakami district's Catholic community had survived centuries of persecution. The Urakami Cathedral, rebuilt after the bomb, stands 500 meters from the hypocenter.
The Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum and the Nagasaki Peace Park with its iconic Peace Statue stand at and near the hypocenter. The ruins of the original Urakami Cathedral walls are preserved as a monument near the rebuilt church. The site is a deeply moving memorial visited by hundreds of thousands each year.
Visit: Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum (museum)
1 Einstein Drive, Princeton, New Jersey — Einstein, Bohr, and the refugee physicists
The Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton is where Albert Einstein spent his American years after fleeing Nazi Germany in 1933. Rhodes uses Einstein as a through-line for the refugee physicist experience — the brilliant European scientists who brought their knowledge to American shores just in time for the Manhattan Project. It was at Princeton, in 1939, that Leo Szilárd famously visited Einstein to secure his signature on the letter to Roosevelt. Niels Bohr also spent time at the Institute, and Rhodes describes the weight of responsibility these men felt as their abstract equations became instruments of mass destruction.
The Institute for Advanced Study was founded in 1930 as an independent academic institution for postdoctoral scholars. Einstein was one of its first professors, arriving in 1933 and remaining until his death in 1955. The Institute has been home to some of the most distinguished mathematicians and physicists of the 20th century, including John von Neumann and Kurt Gödel.
The Institute for Advanced Study remains an independent research institution of global renown. Einstein's office in Fuld Hall is preserved, and the campus is accessible to visitors. The Institute hosts public lectures and is close to the Princeton University campus, which also has significant Einstein associations.
Visit: Institute for Advanced Study (historic site)
University of California, Berkeley — Cyclotron and uranium separation
Ernest Orlando Lawrence's Radiation Laboratory on the Berkeley hills was one of the Manhattan Project's key scientific engines. Lawrence invented the cyclotron and used it to produce radioisotopes and explore nuclear reactions. Rhodes describes Lawrence as an indefatigable scientific entrepreneur — cheerful, aggressive, and enormously influential with government funders. His electromagnetic separation method, scaled up at Oak Ridge's Y-12 plant into thousands of 'calutrons,' was critical to producing weapons-grade uranium-235 for Little Boy. Oppenheimer, who taught at Berkeley before Los Alamos, is shown in Rhodes's account moving through Lawrence's orbit.
The Radiation Laboratory, later renamed the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, was established in 1931 when Lawrence built his first large cyclotron on the Berkeley campus. Lawrence won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1939. The lab pioneered the model of large-scale, government-funded 'big science' that would define 20th-century physics.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory continues as a major U.S. Department of Energy research facility on the hills above the UC Berkeley campus. The lab conducts research in energy, computing, and the life sciences. Its visitor center and periodic public tours provide access to one of America's premier scientific institutions.
Visit: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (landmark)
More by Richard Rhodes: All Richard Rhodes books
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