Landing of the Trans-Atlantic Submarine Cable National Historic Event
Heart's Content, Newfoundland and Labrador
Landing of the Trans-Atlantic Submarine Cable
(© Expired)
Address :
Heart's Content, Newfoundland and Labrador
Recognition Statute:
Historic Sites and Monuments Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. H-4)
Designation Date:
2001-04-27
Other Name(s):
-
Landing of the Trans-Atlantic Submarine Cable
(Designation Name)
Research Report Number:
2000-062
Importance:
Landmark engineering event in the history of nineteenth-century global telecommunications
Plaque(s)
Existing plaque: Heart's Content, Newfoundland and Labrador
In 1866, the first transatlantic telegraph cable linking Europe with North America was successfully landed at Hearts Content, Newfoundland. This was a spectacular engineering achievement which marked a major advance in the development of communications. The project, begun in 1851, overcame formidable challenges in cable design and in the technology of laying cable across uneven ocean floor. Subsequent transoceanic cables owed their successful completion to this first courageous endeavour which revolutionized the technology and speed of communications over great distances.