Bell Bomber Plant - Marietta, GA
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Lat34North
N 33° 56.434 W 084° 32.007
16S E 727965 N 3758307
The men and women who built 665 B-29 bombers built at the Marietta Bell Aircraft Plant, that played a major role in bringing the U.S. victory during World War II, climbed these steps each day on the way to work.
Waymark Code: WM6RP8
Location: Georgia, United States
Date Posted: 07/14/2009
Views: 8
The men and women who built 665 B-29 bombers built at the Marietta Bell Aircraft Plant, that played a major role in bringing the U.S. victory during World War II, climbed these steps each day on the way to work.
Located on the south side of Fairground Street where it ends at S. Cobb drive.
THE BELL BOMBER PARK (Source: historic marker at stairway)
This park is dedicated to thousands of men and women who built 665 B-29 bombers that played a major role in bringing the U.S. victory during World War II.
The steps remain as a reminder of the daily walk to work at the Bell Aircraft Plant by the employees from adjoining Marietta Place Apartments, a federal housing project for war workers.
The park is a joint effort of the City of Marietta; the Cobb County Commission; the State of Georgia; the Cobb County Board of Education who gave the land; and the Business and Public Affairs Committee of the Marietta Kiwanis Club, State Senator Steve Thompson, Chairman.
Special recognition should go to Joe Mack Wilson, then Marietta mayor; Bill Kinney, a Marietta Daily Journal editor; and the parks departments of Marietta and Cobb County.
MARIETTA MAYOR AND COUNCIL
Ansley L. Meaders, Mayor
Council
Betty L. Hunter, Pete Waldrep, Daniel O. Cox. Sr., Paul Sabiston,
James C. Dodd, Jr. Frank Ayers, Philip M. Goldstein
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Additional Information about the "Bell Bomber":
Site of the future Aviation Museum (in planning stage) located on the grounds of the Lockheed-Martin plant. Building 1 was home of the WWII era “Bell Bomber” assembly plant, the largest of its kind in the Deep South. In 1942 the War Department awarded a contract to the Bell Aircraft Company to build B-29 bombers in Marietta at a plant that the Corps of Engineers would soon construct. Bell transformed the local economy, helping to bring the area out of the Great Depression. By 1945 some 28,000 employees (37 percent women and over 90 percent native southern) had become experienced industrial workers, capable of producing an average of one of the 4-engine, 62-ton, long-range bombers each day. The Bell operation closed shortly after the end of World War II, but many of the Bell employees returned to work when Lockheed reopened the plant during the Korean War in 1951. Lockheed-Georgia’s greatest success over the next several decades was in building transport planes (the C-130, C-141, and C-5). These engineering marvels exemplify the crucial role of research and development in the Cold War years, as Lockheed scientists continuously innovated new technologies to make bigger and better airplanes that went further and faster.