Transatlantic Telegraph Cable

The 1866 telegraph line that shrank the Atlantic from ten days to minutes and invented the data trade.

Overview

The 1858 first cable failed within weeks after heads of state traded congratulatory telegrams, but the Great Eastern, Brunel's giant ship, laid a durable line in 1866. Early tariffs of several dollars per word fell over decades to cents as competition and cartelization alternated. News agencies and financial arbitrage were born in the new instant, and price gaps between London and New York narrowed. Telephone coax crossed from 1956 with TAT-1, and fiber followed. Every cable since is a descendant of the moment communication outran transportation.