The Girls of Atomic City (47 page)

The offices of the
Oak Ridge Journal
. Here, photographer Ed Westcott takes a turn on the other side of the lens, second from the right.

Recreation facilities ranged from skating and dances to rabbit breeding and organized sports.

Access to Oak Ridge was through one of seven guarded gates. Resident badges and searches were the norm, and no one got a free pass—not even Santa.

Billboards and posters extolling patriotism and discretion were found throughout the United States during World War II. Images throughout Oak Ridge reminded residents to work hard and keep quiet about what went on inside their fences.

A close look at a cubicle control panel in the Y-12 plant.

Keeping Oak Ridge running meant keeping one of the largest bus systems in the country running.

Shift change at the Y-12 plant, which boasted roughly 22,000 workers in the spring of 1945, many of them young women.

A massive Alpha “racetrack” in the Y-12 plant is shown here.

Young female cubicle operators monitor the activity of the calutrons, the heart of the uranium electromagnetic separation process at Y-12.

Cleanup was a highly important part of the work at Oak Ridge. Worker uniforms were often washed and processed in an effort to retrieve any infinitesimal amount of the Product.