Few years back saw an item similar to this in an antique shop. Passed it up. . .and had regretted it ever since. . . Yesterday. . .at a flea market. . .guess what popped up? Yep. . .a nifty little walnut plaque. . .just like the the one I saw years ago. . .

Have been told that this line was a good source of CD 141's on the California side of the line.

Pretty cool!

transcontinental dog ^..^

On the bottom of the plaque is a piece of paper with the following:

COMMEMORATING THE FIRST TRANSCONTINETAL TELEPHONE LINE 1915

This momento contains an insulator and mounting pin removed from the last section of the original New York to San Francisco transcontinental telephone line. This section was located near Auburn, California in the historic gold rush country and was part of the line in Pacific Telephone territory. The line was taken out of service in 1976.

The first official call to be made over the historic line came on January 25, 1915 to commemorate its completion as well as to introduce the upcoming Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco.

Major participants in that first coast-to-coast call were Alexander Graham Bell speaking in New York, Dr. Thomas Watson, his long assistant, in San Francisco, President Woodrow Wilson in Washington, D.C., and Theodore N. Vail, President of AT&T, in Jekyl Island, Florida.

The original 3920-mile connection crossed 12 states and its construction was a cooperative effort by the entire Bell System.

The last link was joined by crews from Pacific Telephone and Mountain States Telephone Co., at Wendover, Utah, in June 1914.

The early system has been replaced several times over with under ground cables and microwave stations that carry millions of phone calls daily between distant points.

PACIFIC TELEHONE.