The Neighborhood Built for a Mission
The Manhattan Project Machine
The Engines of Secrecy, Science and Scale
The Hanford Site became one of the Manhattan Project's most important and secretive facilities during WWII.
Behind barbed wire and guarded gates, on land once home to indigenous communities, farms and small towns, the U.S. government built one of the most ambitious and secretive industrial complexes in human history: the Hanford Site.
At its peak, Hanford employed more than 50,000 workers, most unaware of what they were building. Massive reactors, like the groundbreaking B Reactor, were constructed in record time. Entire towns, including White Bluffs and Hanford, were vacated and demolished to make way for this wartime effort. The people who once called this land home were displaced, while thousands of others arrived by train from around the country, then bused in to live and work in remote desert conditions with little more than a promise of a good paying job that supported the ear effort.
This was the industrial backbone of the Manhattan Project, the place where plutonium was produced for the world’s first atomic test device, known as “the Gadget,” tested at the Trinity Site New Mexico, and for the Fat Man atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945 during the waning days of World War II.
What remains today are not just ruins or relics, they’re testaments to the scale and urgency of the war effort. From the preserved control room of the B Reactor to the footprints of once-thriving communities, these places give voice to the people and machinery that powered a hidden war within our own borders.
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.
