Transcontinental Telegraph

The first transcontinental telegraph line across the United States was completed on October 24, 1861. The line actually connected a network of lines already in the eastern part of the country to a smaller network in California. This additional link ran between Omaha, Nebraska; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Carson City, Nevada.

President Harrison

This was noted as a "milestone in electrical engineering" at the time, serving as the only way to get quick messages between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts during the history-making 1860's. To get some idea of what this meant, it had taken 110 days for the news of President Harrison's death to reach Los Angles.

Samuel Morse

Samuel Morse had put the first experimental line between Washington, DC, and Baltimore, Maryland, in 1844. By 1850, lines ran throughout the Eastern states, and California soon had their separate lines to enhance their booming economy. It also became the first Pacific coast state to be admitted to the Union because of all this.

Original telegraph

Proposals to subsidize a telegraph line stretching to California were made several times in the 1850's. In 1860, the U.S. Postal Service was authorized to spend $40,000 a year to build and maintain the transcontinental line. In 1859, the California State Legislature had already appropriated $6,000 a year to do the same in their state.

The completion of the line ushered in a new era for communications. One of the sad consequences of the telegraph in the eyes of those clinging to nostalgia and the spirit of the Old West, however, was that it signaled the end to the pony express, which was about 18 months old on October 24, 1861.

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