Is it true that the Manhattan Project started in a building owned by Columbia University on 125th St in Harlem? Is there a plaque or something somewhere there?
You are da bomb!
ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: It was called the Manhattan Project due to its beginnings in Manhattan, even before the U.S. entry into WWII, in 1939.
Pupin Hall, on 120th Street at Broadway, is a designated National Historic Landmark. The statement of significance reads: “Initial experiments on the nuclear fission of uranium were conducted here by Enrico Fermi. The uranium atom was split here on January 25, 1939, ten days after the world’s first atom-splitting in Copenhagen, Denmark.”
Here’s a photo of a plaque at the building: http://www.atomictraveler.com/pgcolumbia5.jpg
There was also Manahattan Project research that went on at the Havemeyer Building, at 3200 Broadway between 116th and 120th.