On this date in 1861, human communications took a leap forward in this country -- and nothing would ever quite be the same. The irony seems profound now, and must have seemed that way to some people at the time: Only six months after the outbreak of the Civil War, dividing the country and families in the process, this country became a place where Americans could communicate with each other across a sprawling continent in record time. Until then, those on the West Coast were living, in the words of telegraph pioneer James Gamble, "beyond the pale of civilization."
But when Western Union Telegraph completed a link in Salt Lake City 162 years ago today, California was connected to the great cities of the East Coast. The first message from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., was sent over those wires from California Supreme Court Justice Stephen J. Field to Abraham Lincoln. The first telegram went out at 7:40 p.m. on Oct. 24 and was received by Lincoln late the following morning:
In the temporary absence of the Governor of the State, I am requested to send you the first message which will be transmitted over the wires of the telegraph line which connect the Pacific with the Atlantic States," Field had written. "The people of California desire to congratulate you upon the completion of the great work. They believe that it will be the means of strengthening the attachment which binds both the East and the West to the Union, and they desire in this, the first message across the Continent, to express their loyalty to that Union, and their determination to stand by the Government, in this, its day of trial. They regard that Government with affection, and will adhere to it under all fortunes.
Lincoln must have been impressed: Two years later, he appointed Field to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Wiring a country this vast was no easy feat in the 19th century. Constructing the telegraph line eastward from Carson City, Nev., to Utah necessitated transporting wire and insulators from the East Coast by ship around South America to California, where they were then carried by wagons over the Sierra Nevada Mountains. When the work crews descended the high country, they faced the prospect of erecting 600 miles of telegraph poles through a treeless desert.
For the western segment of the line, Mormon settlers (led by telegraph company official James Street) helped workers scour arroyos for usable firewood. But when it came to the portion being constructed east to west -- from Omaha, Neb., to Salt Lake -- native Sioux people cut a section of the line down and used the wire for bracelets. But as the arduous summer turned to fall, the eastern section was finally completed.
Six days later, on October 24, 1861, the lines from Carson City reached Salt Lake City. One striking aspect about it is how quickly Americans embraced the new technology -- and how quickly their thoughts turned to the rest of the world.
Writing in the all-caps style that would dominate Western Union dispatches for more than a century, Mormon leader Brigham Young sent a telegram to San Francisco, to H.W. Carpentier, president of the Overland Telegraph Company (which would later be absorbed into Western Union):
GREAT SALT LAKE CITY, OCTOBER 24, 7 P.M.TO HON. H. W. CARPENTIER, PRESIDENT OF THE OVERLAND TELEGRAPH COMPANY
DEAR SIR: I AM VERY MUCH OBLIGED FOR YOUR KINDNESS, MANIFESTED THROUGH YOU AND MR. STREET, IN GIVING ME PRIVILEGE OF FIRST MESSAGE TO CALIFORNIA. MAY SUCCESS EVER ATTEND THE ENTERPRISE. THE SUCCESS OF MR. STREET IN COMPLETING HIS END OF THE LINE UNDER MANY UNFAVORABLE CIRCUMSTANCES IN SO SHORT A TIME IS BEYOND OUR MOST SANGUINE ANTICIPATIONS. JOIN YOUR WIRES WITH THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE, AND WE WILL CONVERSE WITH EUROPE.
That would soon happen. Communications technology would never stop evolving, with America often leading the way, and would never stop linking the human race ever more tightly -- sometimes, as learned two weeks ago in Palestine, to our detriment. And 134 years to the day after that momentous event, a newly formed government agency, the Federal Networking Council, formally adopted a resolution defining a new term: Internet.
Carl M. Cannon is the Washington bureau chief for RealClearPolitics. Reach him on Twitter @CarlCannon
