Los Alamos National Laboratory

The Los Alamos Laboratory, or Project Y, came into existence in early 1943 for a single purpose: to design and build an atomic bomb. The United States knew little about the German atomic program, but the specter of a nuclear-equipped Hitler could not be ignored. As American soldiers trudged through the deserts of North Africa, braved the Normandy beaches, and bled for every yard of distant Iwo Jima and Okinawa, American scientists raced to unlock the power of the atom.