Destroyer of Worlds

If there is one place, that always makes me pause and introspect, gauge the profundity of the soil and the moment, then it would be the Trinity site. 16 July 1945. White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. The Gadget. 

This is all that remains today. 

Seeing these images is still overwhelming. 

The words of Robert J Oppenheimer would yet be the most appropriate. 

“We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, ‘Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.’ I suppose we all felt that one way or another.”

The above obelisk is a memorial to that very singularly seminal moment. The image below shows the remains of the tower where The Gadget was installed and exploded, many feet off the ground.