150 years or global communication - Museums - National Museum of American History - Brief Article

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Dec, 2001

The world suddenly became smaller in 1851, when a telegraph cable laid underwater in the English Channel opened communications between England and France. By 1866, underwater cables laid in the North Atlantic permanently linked Europe and America, and by 1872, other cables reached India, Australia, China, and Japan. Information of all kinds was made available at the speed of electricity, changing forever the way we live. Today, the early copper wires are long gone, with optical fibers making up the information highway of the 21st century.

An exhibition showing the progress of international communications from that first link 150 years ago, "The Underwater Web: Cabling the Seas," is on view at the National Museum of American History, Washington, D.C., through March 22, 2002.