Area 51 Palmdale facility. A search for a suitable testing site for the U-2 was conducted under the same extreme security as the rest of the project. He notified Lockheed, who sent an inspection team out to Groom Lake. According to Lockheed's U-2 designer Kelly Johnson: The lakebed made an ideal strip from which they could test aircraft, and the Emigrant Valley's mountain ranges and the NTS perimeter, about north of Las Vegas, protected the test site from visitors. The CIA asked the AEC to acquire the land, designated "Area 51" on the map, and add it to the Nevada Test Site.
Maryland Route 51 state highway reduces to a two-lane road after passing Uhl Highway, an old alignment of MD 51 that is unsigned MD 51E. The rail yard ends at Mexico Farms Road, which provides access to Mexico Farms Airport and the Warrior Run Generating Station. Within the hamlet of North Branch, MD 51 intersects as other end of Uhl Highway as well as Pittsburgh Plate Glass Road, which serves the North Branch Industrial Complex, including Federal Correctional Institution, Cumberland. MD 51 enters a rural area and parallels the C&O Canal southeast through Spring Gap. The state highway turns away from the Potomac