Subject: [WSFA] Re: A Transcontinental Telegraph, Hurrah! From: Eric Jablow <ejablow at cox.net> Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2011 20:22:06 -0400 To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net> Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net> On Oct 24, 2011, at 8:15 PM, Keith F. Lynch wrote: > October 24, 1861, 150 years ago today, the first transcontinental > telegraph line was completed. > > The first message sent over this predecessor of the Internet was: > > TO ABRAHAM LINCOLN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And for the rest of the Civil War, President Lincoln haunted the Telegraph Office, reading dispatches as they came in and chatting with the cipher-operators. Respectfully, Eric Jablow