today in history: August 6, 1945 Hiroshima Peace Day-atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima by "Enola Gay"

oak ridge national laboratory was built hastily, though carefully, in the early 1940s. tucked in a secluded valley in east tennessee, the laboratory was part of the secret manhattan project that produced the bombs dropped on hiroshima & nagasaki. the laboratory was staffed by thousands of degreed scientists and science industry workers. brilliant men & women going to work every day in a dangerous & toxic environment. the oak ridgers needed homes. wooden houses connected by boardwalks were constructed in the muddy land surrounding the laboratory. as the months passed, more permanent housing was built from cemestos. this remarkable building material was formed by combining cement with asbestos.

that's right, the nation's best & brightest scientists worked all day in a nuclear bomb factory and went home at night to asbestos houses.