Photo of a lineman performing sort-of a high-wire-act attaching lead-covered telephone cable (with many pairs within) somewhere in Connecticut. Eventually this sort of construction won out with AT&T commencing in the early teens. It was a lot easier to physically maintain thanks to Western Electric innovations. Continually improved methods of amplification for all of the thin copper wires within cables like this that extended over long distances rapidly led to the demise of AT&T's openwire through the decades.