Old Telegraph Line

Old Telegraph Line is a Virginia historical marker in Fairfax (County) County, dedicated 2017.

Telegraph Road, 200 feet north of Richmond Highway

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Telegraph Road took its name from one of the first telegraph lines in the United States, which passed near here. The line, completed by the Washington and New Orleans Telegraph Company in 1848, stretched for 1,500 miles and linked the nation's capital to the Deep South. Amos Kendall, a former U.S. postmaster general and an agent for inventor Samuel F. B. Morse, organized the company. Construction flaws made the line undependable in its early years, and it sustained extensive damage during the Civil War. In 1866 the line was absorbed by the American Telegraph Co., which merged with Western Union later that year.

TodayHistorical map

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David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1847 · Virginia (H. S. Tanner, 1847) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1849 · New Map of Maryland and Delaware with their Canals, Roads & Distances (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1857 · Delaware And Maryland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1861 · Map of the seat of war showing the battles of July 18th & 21st 1861 (Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library)
1862 · Map Of N. Eastern Virginia And Vicinity Of Washington (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

Map Of N. Eastern Virginia And Vicinity Of Washington, 1862, covering the location of Old Telegraph Line, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Map Of N. Eastern Virginia And Vicinity Of Washington, 1862, covering this location. David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

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