Today I saw Cyrus Field's workers laying the final stretch of the Transatlantic Cable. The cable stretched from Valentia Island in western Ireland to Heart's Content in eastern Newfoundland. The transatlantic cable provides telegraph communications between North America and Europe. This cable could relay telegraphs and information in a matter of minutes. This greatly reduced the time it took to deliver the message by boat, which was 10 days. The first communications made through the Transatlantic Cable were transmitted in 1858. The first official telegram to pass between two continents was a letter of congratulation from Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom to the President of the United States James Buchanan.
The Transatlantic Cable was invented by Cyrus Field and was attempted unsuccessfully in 1857. This was because the chief engineers could not agree on the cable and how it should work. They used their own way at different ends and the cable was irregular. This caused the first cable to fail. Today the final length was laid and the first message sent. The engineering miracle is finally complete.
