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Connecting Alaska: The Washington-Alaska Military Cable and Telegraph System

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 November 2010

David Eric Jessup
David Eric Jessup
Affiliation:
University of Washington
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Extract

In response to the Klondike gold rush, the U.S. Army established isolated forts throughout Alaska. Between 1900 and 1905, the Signal Corps connected those posts with each other and with the contiguous United States by means of the Washington-Alaska Military Cable and Telegraph System (WAMCATS). A significant logistical and technological achievement, the system of thousands of miles of suspended landlines and underwater cable included the first successful long-distance radio operation in the world. The first physical link between the United States and Alaska, the telegraph was also the first major contribution to Alaskan infrastructure provided by the federal government, marking the beginning of the government's central role in the development of Alaska.

Type
Essays
Information
The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era , Volume 6 , Issue 4 , October 2007 , pp. 385 - 408
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 2007

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