Nuclear Museum Logo
Nuclear Museum Logo

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Wilber A. Stevens was an army officer in charge of overseeing construction at Los Alamos. He helped choose the site where the Manhattan Project would test its first atomic bomb.

According to Robert W. Henderson, head of the Engineering Group in the Explosives Division, Stevens coined the name Trinity when the two were discussing the best way to transport the Jumbo device from the railroad. “A devout Roman Catholic, Stevens observed that the railroad siding was called ‘Pope’s Siding.’ He [then] remarked that the Pope had special access to the Trinity, and that the scientists would need all the help they could get to move the 214 ton Jumbo to its proper spot.”

Related Profiles

Dorothy Wilkinson

Y-12 Plant

Dorothy worked at Oak Ridge during the Manhattan Project as a “calutron girl.” After her brother was killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor, she was eager to join the war effort, and did so starting in 1944.

Lawrence Sperry

Oak Ridge, TN

Lawrence Sperry worked for the United States Engineer District Office.

Albert L. Myerson

Columbia University

Albert Myerson was a chemist and research assistant at the SAM Laboratory at Columbia University from 1942 to 1945.

Harold J. Dorshimer

Los Alamos, NM