In 1866, the world changed forever when a transatlantic cable was laid, connecting Europe with America. The telegraph wire cable allowed messages to be transmitted quickly between the two continents.

By the middle of the 1800s, telegraph poles dotted much of the landscape. The appearance of these poles resulted from Samuel Morse’s invention of the telegraph. However, messages to and from Europe took weeks because they were sent the old-fashioned way, by steamship. Everyone around the world understood the need for a transatlantic cable, but the cable had to be 2,000 miles long and lie 3 miles beneath the Atlantic.

The cable was the result of the dream of Cyrus Field West who had worked for 12 years to see the cable built. He worked with the U.S. and British governments and received grants from them to complete the work. Millions of dollars were spent on the project. The first message West sent when the cable was completed on July 27, 1866, was, “Thank God, the Cable is Laid.” From that day on, the world was forever changed because of a simple cable connection.