In 1942, less than a year after the United States was pulled into World War II, the U.S Army Corps of Engineers quickly and quietly began acquiring large parcels of land in remote areas in three states. Soon after, thousands of young designers, engineers, planners, scientists, and their families, began arriving at these sites that were heavily shielded from public view. Workers there constructed hundreds of buildings including houses, industrial structures, research labs, and testing facilities at unprecedented speed and scale.
Over the course of three years, more than 125,000 people were residing in these cities that seemed to have popped up almost overnight. These cities appeared on no maps, and government officials refused to acknowledge their existence. It seemed as if people were going in, but no one was coming out, creating a sense of curiosity as to what was happening behind the guarded walls.
