Trinity was the code name of the first detonation of a nuclear weapon, conducted by the United States Army on July 16, 1945, as a result of the Manhattan Project.[6][7][8][9] The new test site, named the White Sands Proving Ground, was built in the Jornada del Muerto desert about 35 miles (56 km) southeast of Socorro, New Mexico, at the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range (now part of the White Sands Missile Range).[10][11]