Why was the development of nuclear weapons called The Manhattan Project?
The Manhattan Project, or more fully, the Manhattan Engineering District Project, was an effort during World War II to develop the first nuclear weapons by the United States with assistance from the United Kingdom and Canada. Even selecting a name for the new Army project was difficult. The title chosen by Gen. Brehon Somervell, “Development of Substitute Materials,” was objectionable because it seemed to reveal too much. In the summer of 1942, Col. Leslie Groves was deputy to the chief of construction for the Army Corps of Engineers and had overseen construction of The Pentagon, the world’s largest office building. Hoping for an overseas command, Groves objected when Somervell appointed him to take charge of the weapons project. His objections were overruled and Groves resigned himself to leading a project he thought had little chance of succeeding. The first thing he did was rechristen the project The Manhattan District. The name evolved from the Corps of Engineers practice of naming
