Trinity Site draws thousands on first A-bomb anniversary

ALAMOGORDO, N.M. – Thousands of visitors converged Saturday on the New Mexico site where the first nuclear bomb was detonated nearly 70 years ago.

More than 5,500 people attended the first of two tours being offered this year at the Trinity Site, White Sands Missile Range officials said.

Visitors came from across New Mexico and the U.S. People are continually fascinated to see the place that literally marks a turning point in history, White Sands spokeswoman Erin Dorrance said.

“It brought a quick end to World War II, and it ushered in the atomic age,” Dorrance said. “So out here in the middle of nowhere New Mexico changed the world 70 years ago.”

It was July 16, 1945, when Los Alamos scientists successfully detonated the first atomic bomb at the Trinity Site, located near Alamogordo.