Western Union completed its transcontinental telegraph system that October 150 years ago, allowing telegrams to be sent coast to coast for the first time. Within days, the 18-month-old Pony ...

American Telephone and Telegraph Company (or AT&T ... and thus the first transcontinental phone line was complete. The phone lines continued to improve throughout the century.

Telegraph wires wrapped around spike and ... The world was put on notice: the transcontinental railroad was completed and America was moving to the forefront of the world's stage.