May 1995 Blazer

Transcontinental telephone service began in 1914, but who remembers

ATEM'S OF UTAH'S PAST FROM THE Utah State Historical Society 300 Rio Grande Salt Lake Cit~: tTT 84101 ( 801) 533- 3500 . FAX ( 801) 533- 3303 Transcontinental Telephone Service Began in 1914, But Who Remembers? WHILET HE COMPLETION OF THE TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD IN 1869 is still a well-remembered event in Utah history, relatively few people today recall the completion of the transcontinental telephone. On June 17, 1914, the final connection between San Francisco and New York was made on the NevaddUtah border near Wendover. Although that event was celebrated locally, the nation& festivities were reserved for January 25, 1915, when Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas A. Watson re- created their famous original call on the transcontinental line. The American Telephone and Telegraph Company had long planned and worked to complete the long- distance line. The technological sticking point was the lack of an adequate repeating device that wuld amplify voice communications at a constant level over great distances. Theodore Vail, president of Am, turned the problem over to his chief engineer, John J. Carty. Despite his initial skepticism, Carty and his coworkers eventually developed an adequate repeater using vacuum tube technology. By 1911 regular telephone service stretched from New York to Denver, with some limited service between Denver and Salt Lake City. The final gap consisted of some 400 miles of Great Basin desert across Nevada and Utah. The hazards that telephone construction crews battled-- blizzards, sand, floods, rock- hard ground, desert heat, and snakes- were the same ones faced by pioneer settlers and railroad builders in the nineteenth century. At one point the company sent a fleet of Model- T Fords to supplement equipment that had been disabled by sand. By June 17 all the problems had been surmounted. The final pole had two flags flying from its cross arm: a United States flag and a banner emblazoned ' S. F.- N. Y. Toll Line Completed June 17, 1914." Proud crews from Bell Telephone of Nevada, which had built from the west, joined crews from Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph to celebrate the monumental feat. According to a construction foreman, the feasting and partying went on for three days; the food, including large quantities of roast duck, was located on the Utah side of the border, while the champagne flowed on the Nevada side. The first official message sent on the line was timed to coincide with the Panama- Pacific Exposition of January 1915 in San Francisco. Alexander Graham Bell in New York City and his former assistant Thomas Watson in San Francisco re- created their historic call. Both reported that the connection was perfect. Another connection to Jekyll Island, Florida, brought A'TT President Vail on the line, while U. S. President Woodrow Wilson joined the party call from Washington, D. C. The telephone company was taking no chances about the connection; Am informed the press that it had dispatched 32 repairmen on horseback across the desert, equipped with repair materials in case of any mechanical failure. The price of a call from New York to San Francisco was not ( more) cheap; $ 20.70 bought a three- minute conversation, with $ 6.75 for each additional minute. While AIT trumpeted its accomplishment, the local press was more reserved. News from the battlefields of Europe pushed the transcontinental link to the back pages. The company's promotional literature promised that future schoolchildren would recall " January 25, 1915, as one of the big dates in the world's scientific, commercial, and political history. " History has proven that claim to be overstated. Nevertheless, transcontinental telephone service quickly became indispensable for both business and private communications. See " The Story of a Great Achievement," undated ATT pamphlet in Utah State History Society Library; Sam Bloom, " Theodore Vail: He Made the Transcontinental Phone a Reality," me West, January 1974; SaZt Lake Tribune and Deseret Evening Naus, January 26, 1915. RIE HISTORBLYA ZERi s produced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a grant from the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone [phone] ( JN)