Around 1942 AT&T built an 'express' 1200 mile open wire carrier line from the Mojave area east of LA to lower Washington state. Named the Defense Backup Route (DBR) I believe it was financed mainly by government sources, and designed as a dedicated route to bypass the patchwork of inter-city toll lines on the West coast. When replaced by microwave sometime in the 60's/70's, sections of the line were maintained to provide local service to the remote towns and settlements it passed, some of which had little or no service at all when the line was built through. Here it is in Nevada.