Six-pin phone line openwire construction (and occasionally with 4-pins as seen here on this pole top) pretty much was standard here in New England where crossarms were needed for telephone service. This kind of architecture remained the norm until around 1910 until 10-pinners became standard with Ma Bell and some independent phone companies in this region. This line along with other 6-pin phone service routes came about during the mid-to-later 1880s. These employed two lag screws to attach their crossarms to poles along with 30-inch (or a bit longer) iron crossarm braces (when braces were used!).

Shown is an early double-crossarm subscriber lead that was strung through this quaint Maine village about a century ago.