Timeline of North American telegraphy

The timeline of North American telegraphy is a chronology of notable events in the history of the electric telegraphy in the United States and Canada, including the rapid spread of telegraphic communications starting from 1844 and completion of the first transcontinental telegraph line in 1861.

January 22, 1848 map in New York Herald showing extent of existing and planned North American telegraph lines. At this time, the service area for the United States reached Petersburg, Virginia in the south, Portland, Maine in the northeast, Cleveland, Ohio in the northwest, and as far west as East St. Louis, Illinois . In Canada, lines reached from Hamilton, Ontario to Quebec City , and linked to the United States via Buffalo, New York .
The Speedwell Ironworks , site of Morse's 1838 telegraph demonstration.
Samuel Morse in 1845.
The first telegraph office
November 14, 1845 report in New York Herald on telegraph lines coming into operation.
Map shows extent of operational lines by the end of 1846. At the start of the year, there were only four short lines in operation: the original Baltimore-D.C. line , the Buffalo-Lockport line, a short stretch in Philadelphia, and the New York-Coney Island line. By year's end, lines ran from Washington to Boston, west to Pittsburgh, and north from New York City to Albany and west to Buffalo. Rapid expansion was continuing.
Depiction of the construction of the first Transcontinental Telegraph , with a Pony Express rider passing below.