161 years ago, Thursday, October 24, 1861 during the early months of the War Between the States, the first transcontinental electric-telegraph line was completed by the Western Union Telegraph Company when the Eastern & Western sections were connected together at the telegraph office in Salt Lake City in Utah Territory, after which California Chief Justice, Stephen Johnson Field (1816-1899), wired a congratulatory message from San Francisco, California to U.S. President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) in Washington, D.C.
It is noteworthy that the Pony Express (1860-1861), which boasted that it could deliver a letter from Sacramento to St. Joseph, Missouri in the unheard-of time of 10 days, was instantly made obsolete & went out of business on October 26, 1861 -- two days after the transcontinental electric telegraph system went live.
The circa-1862 photograph depicts the site where the Eastern & Western sections of the transcontinental telegraph were joined at the telegraph office on the East side of Main Street in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory.
This photograph of an Ozark mountain family featuring a mother and her children in the doorway of their cabin home was taken in October 1935
