Jumbo

This is a fragment from Jumbo, a huge steel vessel designed to contain the explosion of the first nuclear device at the Trinity Site some 35 miles southeast of here on July 16, 1945. Jumbo was 25 feet long, 12 feet in diameter, and weighed 214 tons. Its steel walls were 14 inches thick. Although Jumbo was not used in the tests, it was 800 feet from ground zero at the time and escaped without damage except for a steel superstructure around it which was crumpled by the blast. Jumbo was used in later experiments which resulted in the ends being blown out. This piece of Jumbo is a souvenir of the worlds first nuclear explosion.