The Neighborhood Built for a Mission
Moving People & Materials
Planes, Trains, Buses, and the Infrastructure of War
Thousands of workers and critical supplies moved through the Tri-Cities every day to support the war effort.
To build a secret city and run a top-secret site like Hanford, you need more than blueprints and scientists , you need to move thousands of people and massive quantities of equipment, all while keeping everything under wraps.
The Tri-Cities became a vital hub of wartime logistics. Pasco’s airport, once a Naval Air Station, trained military pilots and connected the Columbia Basin to national air routes. Vista Field, once used by the Civilian Pilot Training Program, supported aviation efforts on the home front. Pasco rail yards, Columbia River barge routes, and a web of newly built highways and bridges moved materials in and out of the region constantly, including heavy reactor components and secure shipments under military escort.
And perhaps most astonishing of all: the people. Thousands were bused daily between Richland and the Hanford Site in one of the most extensive and highly regulated employee transport systems in the country.
The movement never stopped. It was a city on wheels, an economy in motion, and a region that learned to scale up fast in service to a war few locals fully understood.
Heritage Sites
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In a city built for secrecy and science, Howard Amon Park offered something rare: open space, recreation, and a sense of normal life. Developed during World War II, the park was designed to serve the growing Richland community and boost worker morale.
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Before Richland became the city we know today, it was a federally controlled town managed by engineers and administrators working for the U.S. government. At the center of it all was City Hall — not just a civic building, but a symbol of military-era governance.
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While most Richland residents lived in nearly identical Alphabet Homes during World War II, the Gold Coast reflected the city's next chapter. Built during the Cold War, its larger homes, tree-lined streets, and Columbia River views welcomed many of Hanford's scientists, engineers, and community leaders.
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Once a thriving farm town with schools and churches, Hanford disappeared almost overnight to make way for the Manhattan Project. Its name now belongs to a site, but its history belongs to its people.
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Before commercial jets filled its runways, Pasco’s airport served a higher-stakes mission. During World War II, this airfield became one of the busiest training sites in the country and today, its story lives on in the very same tower that watched it all unfold.
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Before it became a civic gathering space, Vista Field played a quieter but vital wartime role. As a naval auxiliary airfield during World War II, it helped prepare thousands of aviation cadets for missions across the globe.
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Built in 1922, the Pasco–Kennewick Bridge, known locally as the Green Bridge, was the Tri‑Cities’ first vehicular crossing. It shifted the region from isolated ferry towns to a connected community, serving as the only route between Pasco and Kennewick for more than five decades.
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Designed during wartime and built in the aftermath, The Parkway in Richland was no ordinary downtown. It was part of a federally planned experiment in how to create a livable city overnight.
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As thousands of new residents arrived in the Tri-Cities during WWII, one place became a spiritual anchor for Black workers and their families: Morning Star Baptist Church.
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During World War II and the postwar decades, Clover Island evolved from submerged sandbar to strategic Port property. It played a small but meaningful role in supporting regional transportation and workforce life along the Columbia River.
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Kennewick wasn’t part of the Hanford Site, but it felt the impact. During WWII, the city’s downtown grew rapidly to serve the rising population of workers, families, and support staff flooding into the region.
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Overlooking the Columbia River, the REACH Museum connects past to present, tracing the story of the region from ancient landscapes to the Manhattan Project and beyond.
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Housed in a restored 1911 Carnegie Library, the Franklin County Historical Museum brings the story of Pasco’s wartime transformation to life; with a focus on migration, labor, and community resilience.
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In North Richland, a towering submarine sail rises unexpectedly from the earth, a Cold War relic with roots deep in the Hanford Site’s World War II legacy. The USS Triton Sail Park offers a tangible link between wartime science and postwar military innovation.
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Located in near Historic Downtown Kennewick, the Museum at Keewaydin is dedicated to preserving the rich and diverse heritage of East Benton County. From pioneer settlements to local industry and culture, the museum captures the everyday lives and legacies of the people who helped shape the region.
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Located in Prosser, this cemetery became the reinterment site for the White Bluffs community when Hanford was built. It preserves the memory of lives uprooted, and graves moved, as part of one of the largest displacement operations in U.S. history during World War II.
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At Washington State University Tri-Cities, the Hanford History Project preserves the human stories behind one of the most secretive and significant chapters in American history. Through archives, exhibits, and partnerships, the project ensures that the people of Hanford are remembered alongside its science.
