To what extent did telegraph companies help open the West?
Patrick Edwards
Monson, Massachusetts
Long-distance telegraphs first exchanged complex messages in line-of-sight forms, such as smoke signals and flag semaphores. But electrical telegraphs eliminated the need for a direct observer and allowed messages to be communicated across the continent, virtually instantaneously.
Before the completion of the overland telegraph on October 26, 1861, a stage took about 25 days to deliver the
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