150th Anniversary of North America's First Transcontinental Telegraph Line

The Chicago Sun-Times ran this article on the 150th anniversary on Sunday, October 23rd.

Transcontinental telegraph at 150 - the first social network in the U.S.
by John Rogers
http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation...t-150-the-first-social-network-in-the-us.html

On Oct. 24, 1861, with the push of a button, California’s chief justice, Stephen J. Field, wired a message from San Francisco to President Abraham Lincoln in Washington,
congratulating him on the transcontinental telegraph’s completion that day.
He added the wish that it would be a “means of strengthening the attachment which binds both the East and the West to the Union.”

Historian Jepsen sees value in reflecting on a milestone for Morse’s invention.

“It really gives one a good understanding of how we got where we are and how the Internet evolved,” he said.
“The telegraph is really where it all started.”