Before the electric telegraph, information transmitted over a long distance was attached to a physical object. A letter or messenger had to travel by foot, horse, train, or ship. Information therefore moved at the speed of transportation. Visual signals using flags or lights could be faster in some places, but they depended on weather and a clear view.
The electric telegraph changed this relationship. An operator could open and close an electrical circuit, sending pulses along a wire. Although people still had to write and read the message, electricity carried its signal between stations. Combinations of short and long marks could represent letters, so operators could encode words and turn the code back into text.
In the United States, Congress funded an experimental line of about forty miles between Washington and Baltimore. On May 24, 1844, Morse sent the famous message “What hath God wrought?” from Washington to Baltimore. The demonstration showed that a long-distance telegraph line could work.
As networks expanded, telegraph lines often followed routes such as railroads. A line crossed the American continent in 1861, and a reliable transatlantic cable connected America and Europe in 1866. Newspapers, businesses, and governments could receive distant information sooner instead of waiting only for ships or mail.
Telegraphy had limits: companies charged by the word, so messages were brief, and trained operators had to interpret signals. The miles between two places remained the same, but the waiting time for news became much shorter. The telegraph changed the experience of distance rather than the land itself.