Thousands at New Mexico Site Mark 50th Year of Atomic Bomb

On the 50th anniversary of the first atomic bomb test, a protester on Sunday threw brown liquid that he called “symbolic blood” at an obelisk marking Ground Zero, 50 years to the minute after the historic explosion.

Trinity Site is normally open twice a year to the public in April and October, but visitors were permitted Sunday for the anniversary of the 1945 test. “This is [the] first time we’ve had protesters,” said Jim Eckles, a spokesman for White Sands Missile Range.

Visitors lined up outside the site’s gates as early as 3:30 a.m. MDT. Organizers of the anniversary estimated 5,300 people had visited Sunday by the time the site closed at 11 a.m.

A woman stood by the black obelisk, holding up a string of 1,000 paper cranes, which she said were made by children in Japan and New Mexico. She said the origami cranes would be part of a “children’s peace statue” to be placed in Albuquerque in August.

There were no official ceremonies, no speeches and not even an announcement when the actual time of the A-bomb explosion, 5:29:45 a.m., passed.

About 20 members of the Smithsonian Institution, which is currently presenting a controversial display of the B-52 plane--the Enola Gay--that dropped the first atomic bomb on Japan, delivered lectures about the site.