The Time The Government Wanted to Nuke California's Bristol Mountains to Build A

In the early 1960s, a plan was made to realign Route 66 and the railroad through California's Bristol Mountains by blasting a path using 22 nuclear bombs. This sounds completely crazy today, but it was under serious consideration at the time. In December 1962 the Santa Fe Railway contacted the United States Atomic Energy Commission and asked about the possibility of blasting a path through the mountain with hydrogen bombs. The government was all in, they had actually been waiting for an idea like this. The California Department of Public Works also was interested in building a road through the same area to realign and shorten Route 66, so they also joined what was to be known as Project Carryall. In 1957 the United States began Project Plowshare in order to investigate the peaceful use of nuclear bombs. Project Carryall was an extension of Plowshare. Of course using nuclear bombs to blast a path through the mountains wasn't without its drawbacks. The town of Amboy would have surely been destroyed not to mention the radiation, but it was an acceptable risk to the government. In this video we head to Amboy, look at the Bristol Mountains, drive roughly the same path that would have been blasted (Interstate 40 follows the same route), and visit the Project Carryall Monument in Ludlow. To read the railroad's preliminary report from 1964 head here: https://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/hrr/1964/50/50-003.pdf ○ Gear we use: https://www.amazon.com/shop/sidetrackadventures ►Please subscribe for weekly updates showcasing some of our adventures: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdueDRFYPVgzPAAOM_bxVWA?sub_confirmation=1 ►Also please follow Sidetrack Adventures on Instagram: https://instagram.com/sidetrackadventures ►Music in this video is from Epidemic Sounds; use our link for a 60 day free trial: https://share.epidemicsound.com/v927fj