page_title: Timeline of North American telegraphy
section_title: Spread of telegraphic lines
hierarchical_section_title: Timeline of North American telegraphy / Timeline / Spread of telegraphic lines
caption_attribution_description: English: Article in New York Herald, November 14, 1845 about telegraph lines soon to be in operation.
context_page_description: The timeline of North American telegraphy is a chronology of notable events in the history of 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.
context_section_description: 1845
   
  1 April 1845: First public telegraph office opens in Washington, D.C., under the control of the Postmaster-General.  The public now had to pay for messages, which were no longer free.
  15 May 1845: Morse forms the Magnetic Telegraph Company with Amos Kendall, Francis O.J. Smith, Ezra Cornell, and Orrin S. Wood, with a goal to extend the Washington-Baltimore line to New York.
  16-18 September 1845:  Orrin S. Wood builds a short telegraph line of about one mile from Utica, New York to the city fairgrounds (the site of that year's New York State Fair), for public demonstration.
  September 1845: Henry O'Reilly commences building line intended to extend from Philadelphia to St. Louis.  Work on first segment begins in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, heading east to Philadelphia.
  October 1845:  Samuel Colt partners with William Robinson (a New York book dealer) to form the New York and Offing Electric Telegraph Association.  A line is laid from an observation tower built on Coney Island to Manhattan to get news from shipping traffic to the New York Mercantile Exchange more quickly.  The first line laid across the East River from Brooklyn by Colt on October 23 or 24 quickly fails.  The northern terminus of the line becomes the Fulton Ferry in Brooklyn, with news then ferried across the river.  A second line across the East River at Hell Gate was operational by March 1846.
  7 November 1845:  Wood builds a line from Buffalo, New York to Lockport, New York (about 30 miles) that goes into operation on November 7 - the first line opened for regular commercial business.  The first message announced the electoral victory of the Whigs in Niagara County.
  November 1845:  November 14, 1845 New York Herald notes another short planned line, the "Boston Marine Line", which, similar to the New York Offing Line would be a line from Nantasket outside Boston to inner Boston to transmit news from incoming ships.  In a letter to the Herald dated February 23, 1846, Ezra Cornell noted that the Boston line had not yet been put into operation.
  24 November 1845:  Line from Lancaster, Pennsylvania to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (about 35 miles) is completed, but not operational until January 8, 1846.
  November 1845:  In the fall of 1845, the Magnetic Telegraph Company commences building a line from Philadelphia to New York.  By early November, a 14 mile segment from Philadelphia to Norristown, Pennsylvania had been laid, and opened due to great public interest in the work.
    
  1846
  8 January 1846:  Line from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to Lancaster, Pennsylvania opens.  The first telegram from Harrisburg to Lancaster was "Why don't you write, you rascals?"  The line did not yet connect to Philadelphia, and only stayed in service until March 1, 1846; Harrisburg service restarted on October 5, 1846.
  20 January 1846:  Philadelphia-New York line is completed to Newark, New Jersey, and to Fort Lee, New Jersey (just across the Hudson River from New York City) two days later.  Direct connection to New York City is delayed due to failed attempts to extend wires across the river.
  31 January 1846:  Line from Albany, New York to Utica, New York (96 miles) is open.
  21 February 1846: Boston to Lowell, Massachusetts line opens, with Sarah Bagley (generally credited as the first female telegraph operator) at Lowell end.
  22 March 1846: Boston line reaches Springfield, Massachusetts.
  26 March 1846: Boston line reaches Hartford, Connecticut.
  7 April 1846:  The New York and Offing Company (operating its short line to Coney Island for shipping news) opens an office in Manhattan in the New York Post building.
  13 April 1846:  Line from Philadelphia to Wilmington, Delaware starts operations.
  1 May 1846: Boston line reaches New Haven, Connecticut about May 1.
  1 June 1846: Albany-Utica extends further west to Syracuse, New York.
  5 June 1846:  With completion of link between Baltimore and Philadelphia, line from New York City to Washington, D.C. by Magnetic Telegraph Company is now operational.
  27 June 1846:  Commercial line between New York City and Boston completed by F.O.J. Smith.  On Ju
caption: November 14, 1845 report in New York Herald on telegraph lines coming into operation.
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