5 Networks and Social Distance

The first cable linking the European and US telegraph networks was laid across the Atlantic seabed in August of 1858. The ships carrying the cable, the American Niagara and the British Agamemnon, met in the middle of the Atlantic and joined the two halves they were each transporting before sailing off in opposite directions. There had been two failed attempts before. In the first, the cable snapped and fell into the depths of the sea just 350 miles into the journey. In the second attempt, the cable snapped twice and twice the fleet sailed back to their starting positions; when the cable snapped once again, all the ships could do was to return to port to take on new provisions (Briggs and Burke 2009; Briggs and Maverick 1858; Standage 2009 [1998]). So it is no surprise that when the cable was finally landed, jubilation erupted on both continents. Queen Victoria and President Buchanan telegraphed each other to rejoice at the accomplishment. Immediately after, the mayor of New York City sent a message to his London counterpart to celebrate “the triumph of science and energy over time and space” (Briggs and Maverick 1858, 187–189). It did not matter that the cable soon stopped working, and that the enthralled audiences had to wait until 1866, when another cable was laid, to fully rely on the telegraph's promise (Briggs and Burke 2009, 134). The first, if brief, success already settled the world into a new reality: continents that before had been days apart were suddenly “within whispering distance of each other” (Briggs and Maverick 1858, 193). Diplomatic and commercial ties had never reached that level of intimacy.