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UPPER MANHATTAN & THE BRONX

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​Langston Hughes identified racism as a factor in the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, questioning why atomic bombs never targeted Germany or Italy. During the Korean War, he declared, “It is going to be very hard for some Americans not to think the easiest way to settle the problems of Asia is simply dropping an atom bomb on colored heads there.” Hughes’ ashes are interred at the SCHOMBURG CENTER FOR RESEARCH IN BLACK CULTURE (29) (515 Malcolm X Boulevard).

PUPIN HALL (30) (538 West 120th Street) is the home of Columbia University’s Physics Department. Here, on January 22, 1939, Enrico Fermi split the first uranium atom in the US. Other nuclear research in service to the Manhattan Project was conducted at Columbia, including experiments in gaseous diffusion and radiation detection. Not far away, the NASH AUTOMOBILE BUILDING (31) (3280 Broadway) was the site of Columbia’s plant for the isolation of fissionable uranium, and the production of barriers for the gaseous diffusion method of separating uranium.

On April 1, 1961, 3,500 people participated in the largest of several nationwide marches, known as the PEACE MOBILIZATION MARCH (32) (beginning at Ft. Washington Avenue & 181st Street). Members of New Jersey SANE (National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy) and Student SANE marched over 100 miles from McGuire Air Force Base in Wrightstown, New Jersey, met with other marchers here and headed to Columbia University, Columbus Circle, Bryant Park, and, finally, the United Nations.

Bernard Baruch's plan for the creation of the UN Atomic Energy Commission was introduced at LEHMAN COLLEGE (33) (250 Bedford Park Boulevard West) in the Bronx, an interim location for the UN Security Council, which met here from March to August, 1946. 

For the first nationwide defense drill on June 14, 1954, three HYPOTHETICAL NUCLEAR ATTACK POINTS in NYC were selected as “ground zero.” The three sites were in Manhattan, the Bronx (34) (St Ann’s Avenue & 157th Street), and Brooklyn.

Nike anti-aircraft missiles were deployed on HART ISLAND (35) (Long Island Sound, The Bronx) in 1955. The missiles were intended for use in the event of a nuclear attack on NYC.
​The Nuclear NYC Map was created by Kathleen Sullivan, Noah Diamond, Seth Shelden, and Matthew Bolton for NYCAN, incorporating research by Catherine Falzone. Map design by Noah Diamond.
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