99700000 <haynes@felix.ucsc.edu> (06/18/91)
"Transcontinental telephone line is 75 years old"
by Philip I. Earl, Nevada Historical Society
published in The Record-Courier, Minden/Gardnerville, NV, July 13, 1989
"The Nevada Historical Society in Reno is currently featuring a new
exhibit commemorating the 75th anniversary of the completion of the
first transcontinental telephone line.
"Sponsored by Nevada Bell and making use of photos from the archives
of the Nevada Historical Society, the exhibit will run through the end
of August [1989]. Call the Society at 789-0190 for further
information.
"The telephone in Nevada dates back to the installation of a set of
instruments in the Consolidated Virginia Mine in Virginia City in
November of 1877 by Frank Bell, a cousin of Alexander Graham Bell. He
subsequently established the first central offices and household
service in Virginia City and Reno, but the telephone business did not
catch on.
"In later years, he served a term as Warden of the Nevada State
Prison, was appointed Lieutenant Governor on Nov. 30, 1889 and moved
up to the Governorship on Sept. 1, 1890.
"Telephone linkages with other communities were established as the
years passed and long distance service between New York and Salt Lake
City was in operation by 1911. In 1910, Theodore Vail, President of
the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, began planning for the
bridging of the final gap across the Great Basin.
"On Jan. 13, 1913, Bell Telephone Company of Nevada was incorporated
as a holding company of Pacific Telephone & Telegraph for the
construction of the last link. John J. Carty, chief engineer for
AT&T, headed a team which developed the vacuum tube repeater and three
survey crews were put in the field in Noverber, 1913 to lay out a line
between Wadsworth, Nevada and the Utah line at Wendover.
"Within five months, the surveyors had staked the entire line - over
400 miles - and right-of-way agents had determined property lines and
purchased easements.
"An army of 100 men, 34 wagons, 116 horses, four trucks, three
automobiles and a crawler tractor had meanwhile descended upon Nevada,
but a worse time could not have been picked. The spring of 1914 was
one of the wettest in 30 years and crews often found the stakes under
water when they arrived. Roads had to be built the whole way to haul
in poles and wire as well as every crumb of food, piece of bedding and
drop of water.
"In some areas, the vehicles bogged down in the sand; in others they
mired in the mud. Mosquitos swarmed out of the sagebrush in such
numbers that the men had to make blankets out of barley sacks to keep
the horses from being eaten alive and they had to be constantly on
guard against rattlesnakes. There were also personal hardships
aplenty, but the men persisted since each and every one of them felt a
sense of mission and history as they went about their daily tasks.
"A total of 13,900 poles were erected; each man had perhaps taken a
million steps in the course of the four-month project and the linemen
had climbed another half-million steps up and down the poles.
"As the end of the line near Wendover was reached in the summer of
1914, Bell of Nevada crews met their counterparts from the Mountain
States Telephone and Telegraph Company who had been working west from
Salt Lake City. On June 17, a "Golden Spike" ceremony was held.
"Telephone executives in dark, heavy business suits were on hand that
day, as were townspeople, visitors who wanted to be present on that
historic occasion, photographers and movie cameramen. When the last
pole went up, the ground was tamped. A lineman then climbed up and
nailed an American flag to the crossarm. He also attached a banner
lettered:
S.F. - N.Y.
Toll Line
Completed
June 17, 1914
"The foreman signaled their crews and two teams and wagons crossed
under the last pole as a movie cameraman cranked away. The final
strands of wire were reeled off and linemen completed the final splice
in the line which extended across 13 states.
"For the next three days, the men celebrated, dining on roast duck,
catered gourmet delicacies and champagne. As it happened, the dining
tent was set up on the Utah side, so there was a beaten path across
the line into Nevada where the bubbly wine and other libations were
served in glass insulators.
"Following several weeks of testing by telephone engineers, the line
was declared to be ready for service on July 29, 1914. The first
official coast-to-coast call was made on Jan. 15, 1915 at the opening
of the Panama-Pacific Exposition. The call featured a conversation
between Alexander Graham Bell in New York and his old collaborator,
Thomas Watson, in San Francisco.
[I've read elsewhere that Bell said, "Mr. Watson, come here. I want
you." and Watson replied he would, but it would take him a lot longer
than it did when Bell said those same words into the first successful
telephone.]
"A scant three-quarters of a century later, long distance
telecommunications account for more than 40 million calls a day, 1.5
million of them from coast-to-coast."
haynes@cats.ucsc.edu
haynes@ucsccats.bitnet
[Moderator's Note: Thanks for an excellent article marking the 75th
anniversary of this occassion. PAT]