<p><img src="https://static1.businessinsider.com/image/600aec6721f52a0018cba0ac-1500/area51_9.jpg" border="0" alt="Area 51" data-mce-source="David Becker/Getty Images"></p><p></p><bi-shortcode id="summary-shortcode" data-type="summary-shortcode" class="mceNonEditable" contenteditable="false">Summary List Placement</bi-shortcode><p>Secrets are hard to keep, and secrets that require a lot of real estate are even harder to keep.</p><p>Here are six examples of large-scale efforts that managed to maintain the utmost secrecy and wound up changing the course of history as a result:</p><h2>The entire city of Oak Ridge, Tennessee</h2><p><img src="https://static4.businessinsider.com/image/56671a708430761d008b85aa/y-12shiftchange.jpg" border="0" alt="Oak Ridge Tennessee" data-mce-source="US Army/Ed Westcott"></p><p>Oak Ridge, Tennessee is now a mostly normal city that houses about 30,000 people, but it was <a href="http://www.britannica.com/place/Oak-Ridge-Tennessee">originally established to create the nuclear bomb</a>.</p><p>Army engineers tasked with building the infrastructure for the Manhattan Project chose the site of modern Oak Ridge and secretly created a top-secret facility with a peak population of 75,000 people. Oak Ridge was where the bulk of the nuclear material for the bombs was created.</p><p>In 1949, the site was opened to the general public and it was incorporated as a city in 1959.</p><h2>The Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific</h2><p><img src="https://static1.businessinsider.com/image/56671aec8430761d008b85ad/np-3doverkwajaleinatoll1996.jpg" border="0" alt="Kwajalein Atoll US Navy Plane" data-mce-source="US Navy/Greg Senff"></p><p>Most people know Bikini Atoll, the site of many US nuclear tests and the inspiration for the bikini. But Bikini Atoll was supported and largely run by US military forces at Kwajalein Atoll.</p><p>US Army Kwajalein Atoll <a href="https://books.google.com/books'id=TLUQ1D0lrNYC&pg=PT284&lpg=PT284&dq=USAKA+nuclear+tests&source=bl&ots=N25Kg_ZFhd&sig=cMAJsolY59-vaYbPOtMPR_aZ0mc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwio9vCgo77JAhWIdj4KHQM3BCUQ6AEIMzAD#v=onepage&q=USAKA%20nuclear%20tests&f=false">still exists and sensitive operations are still conducted there</a>, mostly missile testing and target practice.</p><h2>Tonopah</h2><p><img src="https://static3.businessinsider.com/image/5283b2fc6da81184168b4567-1200/f-117-stealth-aircraft.jpg" border="0" alt="f 117 stealth aircraft" data-mce-source="National Museum of the United States Air Force" data-mce-caption="Stealthy F-117 was tested at Area 51."></p><p>Tonopah was a secret even among military aviators in the 1970s. Those in the know were <a href="http://www.wearethemighty.com/articles/secret-air-force-program-hid-even-secret-program">sent to practice dogfighting against captured Soviet jets</a> near Tonopah, Nevada.</p><p>But Tonopah had a different secret that would change military aviation. Stealth aviation was developed there, and the F-117 flew many of its test flights from Tonopah.</p><h2>Area 51</h2><p><img src="https://static5.businessinsider.com/image/5d39bd30a209d34ad146f765-1500/area512.jpg" border="0" alt="Area 51 / Storm Area 51" data-mce-source="David Becker/Getty Images"></p><p>If you don't know what the cultural significance of Area 51 is, then stop lying because you definitely know what Area 51 is.</p><p>The <a href="http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-mag-april052009-backstory-story.html">rumors around the test site</a> spurned its own subgenre of entertainment with big movies like "Independence Day" and video games like "Area 51."</p><p>Area 51's military significance is that it was a <a href="https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2015-featured-story-archive/area-51-u-2-and-the-accidental-test-flight.html">testing ground for the U-2 and the SR-71's predecessor</a>, <a href="http://gizmodo.com/302164/secret-a-12-spy-plane-officially-unveiled-at-cias-headquarters-no-x-men-found-inside">the A-12 Oxcart</a>. Officially, the site is named the Nevada Test and Training Range at Groom Lake.</p><h2>Wendover Army Air Base</h2><p><img src="https://static4.businessinsider.com/image/600aea74c94799001992cbeb-799/fm-2011-wendover-atomic-secret-4-gall.jpg__600x0_q85_upscale.jpg" border="0" alt="Wendover Army Air Base" data-mce-source="Wendover Air Force Base History Office"></p><p>Wendover Army Air Base was a tiny establishment when it was activated in 1942, serving primarily as a school for aviators headed to Europe.</p><p>But by 1944 a shroud of secrecy descended over the remote base, with <a href="http://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/wendovers-atomic-secret-78620832/'page=2">FBI agents and military police monitoring conversations and limiting movements of base personnel and their families</a>. That's because the base was being used to train the men who were hand-selected to drop the atomic bombs on Japan.</p><h2>Muroc Army Air Base/Edwards Air Force Base</h2><p><img src="https://static2.businessinsider.com/image/600aea8cc94799001992cbec-2400/chck-yeager-glamorous-glennis-first-supersonic-flight.jpg" border="0" alt="Chck Yeager Glamorous Glennis first supersonic flight" data-mce-source="US Air Force" data-mce-caption="Chuck Yeager"></p><p>Muroc Army Air Base started as a bombing and gunnery range in the 1930s but became a proper base and school for pilots during World War II. A few years after the war, its name was changed to Edwards.</p><p>Top secret projects began at Muroc in 1942 when the Army Air Force's first jet, the Bell <a href="http://www.space.com/29543-edwards-air-force-base.html">P-59 Airacomet, was tested there</a>.</p><p>It also served as an early testing site for the <a href="http://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/wendovers-atomic-secret-78620832/'no-ist">B-29s modified to drop nuclear weapons</a> on Japan, was the base Chuck Yeager flew from when he first broke the sound barrier, and assisted in the testing of the space shuttle.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/4-amazing-things-the-sr-71-blackbird-did-the-day" >The legendary SR-71 set 4 different speed records on its final flight across the US</a></strong></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/6-top-secret-military-bases-that-changed-history-2015-12#comments">Join the conversation about this story »</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/washington-dc-famous-landmarks-secrets-facts-2019-7">7 secrets about Washington, DC landmarks you probably didn't know</a></p>
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