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Russian–American Telegraph
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Russian–American Telegraph
The Russian–American Telegraph, also known as the Western Union Telegraph Expedition and the Collins Overland Telegraph, was an attempt by the Western Union Telegraph Company from 1865 to 1867 to lay a telegraph line from San Francisco, California, to Moscow, Russia.
The route of the $3,000,000 undertaking (equivalent to $61.6 million today) was intended to travel from California via Oregon, Washington Territory, the Colony of British Columbia and Russian America, under the Bering Sea and cross the broad breadth of the Eurasian Continent to Moscow, where lines would communicate with the rest of Europe. It was proposed as a much longer alternative to the challenge of long, deep underwater cables in the Atlantic, having only to cross the comparatively narrow Bering Strait underwater between North America and Siberia.
Laying the cable across Siberia proved more difficult than expected. Meanwhile, Cyrus West Field's transatlantic cable was successfully completed, leading to the abandonment in 1867 of the trans-Russian effort. A Government of Canada historic plaque adds these specifics: "In 1867 ... construction ceased at Fort Stager at the confluence of the Kispyap and Skeena rivers. The section from New Westminster to the Cariboo was bought by the Canadian Government in 1880."
In spite of the project's economic failure, many regard aspects of the effort a success on the weight of various benefits the exploration brought to the regions that were traversed. To date, no entities have attempted a communications cable across the Bering Sea, with all extant submarine communications cables that travel westbound from North America following more southerly routes across much longer stretches of the North Pacific Ocean, connecting to Asia in Japan and then on to the Asian mainland.
By 1861 the Western Union Telegraph Company had linked the eastern United States by electric telegraph all the way to San Francisco. The challenge then remained to connect North America with the rest of the world.
Working to meet that challenge were two telegraph pioneers, one, Cyrus West Field, seeking to lay an undersea telegraph cable west to east across the Atlantic from North America, and the other, Perry Collins, proposing a west to east link going the opposite direction, overland from the west coast of North America across the Bering Strait and Sibera to Moscow.
Field's Atlantic Telegraph Company laid the first transatlantic cable across the Atlantic Ocean in 1858. However, it had broken three weeks afterwards and attempts to repair it had been unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, entrepreneur Perry Collins visited Russia and took note that it was making good progress extending its telegraph lines eastwards from Moscow over Siberia. Upon his return to the States, Collins approached Hiram Sibley, head of the Western Union Telegraph Company with the idea of an overland telegraph line that would run through the Northwestern states, the colony of British Columbia and Russian Alaska. Together, they worked on promoting the idea and obtained considerable support in the US, London and Russia.
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Russian–American Telegraph
The Russian–American Telegraph, also known as the Western Union Telegraph Expedition and the Collins Overland Telegraph, was an attempt by the Western Union Telegraph Company from 1865 to 1867 to lay a telegraph line from San Francisco, California, to Moscow, Russia.
The route of the $3,000,000 undertaking (equivalent to $61.6 million today) was intended to travel from California via Oregon, Washington Territory, the Colony of British Columbia and Russian America, under the Bering Sea and cross the broad breadth of the Eurasian Continent to Moscow, where lines would communicate with the rest of Europe. It was proposed as a much longer alternative to the challenge of long, deep underwater cables in the Atlantic, having only to cross the comparatively narrow Bering Strait underwater between North America and Siberia.
Laying the cable across Siberia proved more difficult than expected. Meanwhile, Cyrus West Field's transatlantic cable was successfully completed, leading to the abandonment in 1867 of the trans-Russian effort. A Government of Canada historic plaque adds these specifics: "In 1867 ... construction ceased at Fort Stager at the confluence of the Kispyap and Skeena rivers. The section from New Westminster to the Cariboo was bought by the Canadian Government in 1880."
In spite of the project's economic failure, many regard aspects of the effort a success on the weight of various benefits the exploration brought to the regions that were traversed. To date, no entities have attempted a communications cable across the Bering Sea, with all extant submarine communications cables that travel westbound from North America following more southerly routes across much longer stretches of the North Pacific Ocean, connecting to Asia in Japan and then on to the Asian mainland.
By 1861 the Western Union Telegraph Company had linked the eastern United States by electric telegraph all the way to San Francisco. The challenge then remained to connect North America with the rest of the world.
Working to meet that challenge were two telegraph pioneers, one, Cyrus West Field, seeking to lay an undersea telegraph cable west to east across the Atlantic from North America, and the other, Perry Collins, proposing a west to east link going the opposite direction, overland from the west coast of North America across the Bering Strait and Sibera to Moscow.
Field's Atlantic Telegraph Company laid the first transatlantic cable across the Atlantic Ocean in 1858. However, it had broken three weeks afterwards and attempts to repair it had been unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, entrepreneur Perry Collins visited Russia and took note that it was making good progress extending its telegraph lines eastwards from Moscow over Siberia. Upon his return to the States, Collins approached Hiram Sibley, head of the Western Union Telegraph Company with the idea of an overland telegraph line that would run through the Northwestern states, the colony of British Columbia and Russian Alaska. Together, they worked on promoting the idea and obtained considerable support in the US, London and Russia.
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