1866: After years of planning, development and more than a few snafus, the trans-Atlantic cable is successfully laid and put into operation.

Telegraphic communication was in its infancy – it had only been 22 years since Samuel F.B. Morse made his historic transmission between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore – when the cable, stretching from Follhummerum Bay in Ireland to the Newfoundland village of Heart's Content, crackled to life.

But it was an eventful 22 years. The idea of a trans-Atlantic cable had been proposed by many when it seemed technologically feasible, but the name of Cyrus Field, a wealthy New York merchant who eventually arranged for funding of the project, is the name that pops up most frequently in its early history.

Field came on board in 1854, a year after the USS Dolphin completed a 1,600-mile sounding between Newfoundland and Ireland that revealed a smooth plateau, ideal for laying cable. Field convened a number of investors, and the New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph Co. was formed.

The cable was almost laid in 1855, but bad weather at sea and the refusal of a ship's captain to follow orders scuttled that attempt. Cable was successfully laid across Cabot Strait in 1856, completing a linkup between New York and Newfoundland. The cable was a third of the way home.

Both the British and American governments agreed to supply additional funding for the project, and in 1857 success was nearly at hand when cable being laid by the USS Niagara snapped in heavy seas. Hundreds of miles of cable was lost, and that – coupled with a bank collapse in the United States – caused the project to be shelved again.

A much-ballyhooed 1858 cable provided just a few weeks of weak, sporadic, fading service before it failed entirely. More disruptions followed, including an interlude known as the Civil War, which soured relations between the United States and Great Britain when London openly sympathized with the Confederacy.

By 1866, however, the war was over, and a new ship – the 693-foot-long Great Eastern – was ready to lay cable. Weighing anchor after the shore end of the new cable was laid at Follhummerum Bay, the Great Eastern made a smooth passage to Heart's Content, and the Old World was joined to the New on July 27.

Source: PBS.org

Image: Robert Dudley's famous painting Awaiting The Reply depicts financier Cyrus Field and his colleagues as they await confirmation of the first message on the first successful trans-Atlantic cable in 1866.

Associated Press

This article first appeared on Wired.com July 27, 2007.