The Girls of Atomic City

When Celia arrives at CEW, she is horrified by her “first glimpses of her new—Should she call it a town? A camp? An outpost?” (37). This is representative of most new arrivals’ perceptions of Oak Ridge and with good reason. Without sidewalks and thick with mud, with new housing springing up every half an hour, it is a strange, custom-built but unfinished town designed to fulfill a single purpose: to facilitate the processing of Tubealloy. As such, it is both always evolving and intended only to be temporary—once its purpose is served and the war brought to an end, it will, in theory, no longer be needed. This gives the people of Oak Ridge a certain “pioneering spirit” (31) and encourages them to make the best of the situation because, as Colleen’s mother reassures her, “It’ll be just like camping […] It’s only temporary” (82). It encourages a sense of life being in flux constantly, as reflected in Colleen declining Blackie’s marriage proposal, reasoning “What [is] the rush? Everything [feels] so temporary here” (216). However, the presence of so many women on site does have a significant impact in the development of a more stable community because, for many, they “bring a sense of permanence. Social connectivity. Home” (97). Indeed, many people do feel that Oak Ridge is their home. Although a good number of workers move on after the war, many others remain and work “to build a future never anticipated by the Project” (296). After all, by now, it is no longer “just a plant or a collection of plants. It [is] now a city” (270). Slowly, sometimes painfully, in the years following the war Oak Ridge continues its transition from a temporary space, shedding its layers of secrecy and military control to finally “a fully independent, ‘normal’ town” (297).

Because of the high levels of secrecy surrounding the Project, very few people truly understand what is occurring inside its fences, least of all outsiders from neighboring towns. All most people know is that it does not appear to be a traditional wartime factory operation. People notice that train cars and trucks loaded with supplies enter the site, but nothing—tanks, ammunition, vehicles—ever leaves. This becomes a joke that “Everything’s goin’ in and nothin’s comin’ out…” (123), a motif that reflects the way CEW is perceived as mysterious, opaque, and impenetrable. Initially, this is a point of intrigue, but it soon becomes a contentious issue as neighbors start to view the site with more suspicion and wonder if it is getting more than its fair share of rationed goods. Nearby locals are often rude or uncooperative with Oak Ridgers, declining them certain goods and services because they suspect them of having access to far more than anyone else. Moreover, outsiders start to wonder if the “city behind the fences [isn’t] anything more than a massive failure—or worse, some sort of intricate swindle at the expense of taxpaying Americans” (205).