Summary of Denise Kiernan's The Girls of Atomic City

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

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#1 Celia was always up for a change of scenery, and this trip was not her first. Her hair was a deep brown, not quite as black as the coal ash that coated life in the Pennsylvania town she had left behind: Shenandoah. It was a town about 100 miles and roughly the equivalent in light-years from Philadelphia.

#2 Celia had a secret job working for the Project in New York City. She was not allowed to ask questions, and she was told only what she needed to know to get where she was going. She was not allowed to know anything about her destination.

#3 The Szapka family had endured their share of difficulties, but they persevered. Complaining would not help secure the safe return of Celia’s brothers Al and Clem. It wouldn't make her father's work any more steady or clear his persistent cough.

#4 Celia’s brother Ed was the only one who stayed in Texas. He was the oldest, and she loved him the most. She did everything she could to help the war effort, from cleaning to working in the mines.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Mar 29, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669378044

IRB Media

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Insights on Denise Kiernan's The Girls of Atomic City

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 12

Insights from Chapter 13

Insights from Chapter 14

Insights from Chapter 15

Insights from Chapter 16

Insights from Chapter 17

Insights from Chapter 18

Insights from Chapter 19

Insights from Chapter 20

Insights from Chapter 21

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Celia was always up for a change of scenery, and this trip was not her first. Her hair was a deep brown, not quite as black as the coal ash that coated life in the Pennsylvania town she had left behind: Shenandoah. It was a town about 100 miles and roughly the equivalent in light-years from Philadelphia.

#2

Celia had a secret job working for the Project in New York City. She was not allowed to ask questions, and she was told only what she needed to know to get where she was going. She was not allowed to know anything about her destination.

#3

The Szapka family had endured their share of difficulties, but they persevered. Complaining would not help secure the safe return of Celia’s brothers Al and Clem. It wouldn't make her father's work any more steady or clear his persistent cough.

#4

Celia’s brother Ed was the only one who stayed in Texas. He was the oldest, and she loved him the most. She did everything she could to help the war effort, from cleaning to working in the mines.

#5

It had taken several years to break the bonds with Shenandoah and her mother. Celia had graduated high school, and her mother had sent her to New Jersey to live with her older sister in Paterson. But Celia wanted to go to college, and her parents did not approve.

#6

Celia had a transfer to the North Atlantic Division of the Army Corps of Engineers in New York City, and she loved it. She adored Manhattan, and her walk from the train to her office was filled with shops and people.

#7

Celia was assigned to the 270 building, which was responsible for securing materials for the Project. She was quickly made accustomed to the secrecy of her job. She would be transferred again soon, this time to New York City, where she would help transport materials for the Project.

#8

Celia was incredibly patriotic, and she felt a sense of purpose and duty while working for the war effort. She was willing to leave her family and her home for the war effort, even if it meant secrecy.

#9

Celia had made it to Knoxville, Tennessee, and was excited to see where she would be going next. She was taken to the Regas Brothers Cafe, where she and the other girls waited for their breakfast to arrive.

#10

Celia was one of the women on the train. She was from Pennsylvania, and had never heard of grits. She tried them, and they were delicious. Other women on other trains kept arriving at the same station, their routes like veins running down the industrial arm of the East Coast.

#11

The Bohemian Club, an invitation-only all-male organization, had a waiting list that was decades long. The group of Project associates meeting at the Bohemian Grove in 1942 had come to do just that: business.

#12

The General was in charge of the Project, and he had a personality and management style that strained the bounds of polite discourse. He finalized the move of the Reservation to Tennessee within days of taking over the Project, and dispatched the Engineer to meet with a polite but somewhat reticent Edgar Sengier in New York.

#13

The Project acquired Sengier’s Staten Island stockpile and another 3,000 tons still waiting in Africa. The price was $1. 60 per pound,