Wood engraving depiction of the construction of the first Transcontinental Telegraph, with a Pony Express rider passing below.

The First Transcontinental Telegraph was a milestone in the formation of the United States. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the It served as the only method of near-instantaneous communication between the east and west coasts during the 1860s.

After the development of efficient Electric Telegraph systems in the 1830s, their use saw almost explosive growth in the 1840s. Samuel Morse's first experimental line between Washington D.C. and Baltimore was demonstrated on May 24, 1844. Samuel Finley Breese Morse ( April 27, 1791 &ndash April 2, 1872) was an American painter of portraits and historic Washington DC ( formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D By 1850 there were lines covering most of the eastern states, and a separate network of lines were soon to be constructed in the booming economy of California. A gold rush is a period of feverish migration of workers into the area of a dramatic discovery of commercial quantities of Gold.

California was also admitted to the United States in 1850, the first state not contiguous with the eastern government. California ( is a US state on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. Major efforts ensued to integrate California with the other states, including sea and overland mail and passenger service. George W Chorpenning Jr (whose last name sometimes appears as "Chorpening" was a pioneer in the transportation of mail freight and passengers through the arid and undeveloped The Butterfield Overland Mail, also known as the Oxbow Route, the Butterfield Overland Stage, or the Butterfield Stage, was a Stagecoach route Proposals for the subsidy of a telegraph line to California were made in Congress throughout the 1850's, but it was not until 1860 that the U.S. Post Office was authorized to spend $40,000 per year to build and maintain an overland line. The year before, the California State Legislature had authorized a similar subsidy of $6000 per year.

The federal contract authorized through the Pacific Telegraph Act of 1860 was awarded to Hiram Sibley, the president of the Western Union Company. The Pacific Telegraph Act of 1860 called for the facilitation of communication between the east and west coasts of the United States of America. Hiram Sibley ( February 6, 1807 – July 12, 1888) was an Industrialist, Entrepreneur, and Philanthropist. The Western Union Company ( is a financial services and communications company based in the United States. He then formed a consortium between Western Union and the telegraph companies in California: to share the efforts of constructing the overland telegraph, to split up the federal and state subsidies, and to share any profits from operation of the line. The newly consolidated Overland Telegraph Company of California would build the line eastward from Carson City (the eastern terminus of their lines), using the newly developed central route though Nevada and Utah. In 1860, the Pacific Telegraph Act of 1860 called for the facilitation of communication between the east and west coasts of the United States of America. Nevada ( is a state located in the western region of the United States of America. The State of Utah (ˈjuːtɔː or) is a western state of the United States. At the same time, the Pacific Telegraph Company of Nebraska was formed by Sibley. In 1860, the Pacific Telegraph Act of 1860 called for the facilitation of communication between the east and west coasts of the United States of America. It would construct a line westward from Omaha, essentially using the eastern portion of the Oregon Trail. Pioneers traveled across the Oregon Trail, one of the main overland migration routes on the North American Continent, in wagons in order to settle new parts of the The lines would meet at a station in Salt Lake City. Salt Lake City is the Capital and the most populous city of the U

Materials for the line were collected in late 1860, and construction proceeded during the summer and fall of 1861. Major problems in provisioning the construction teams were overcome, and there was a constant shortage of sources of telegraph poles on the plains of the Midwest and the deserts of the Great Basin. The Great Basin is a large arid region of the western United States. The line from Omaha reached Salt Lake City on October 18, 1861, and the line from Carson City was completed on October 24.

The telegraph line immediately made the Pony Express obsolete, which officially ceased operations two days later. The Pony Express was a fast Mail service crossing the North American continent from St The overland telegraph line was operated until 1869, when it was replaced by a multi-line telegraph that had been constructed alongside the route of the Transcontinental Railroad. This article refers to a railroad built in the United States between Omaha and Sacramento completed in 1869

Route of First Transcontinental Telegraph.

External Links and Sources

• Contemporary account of the construction of the transcontinental telegraph

• History of the first transcontinental telegraph

• Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum: Pacific Telegraph Act of 1860