(Thematic - North America & Europe) Map of the Submarine Telegraph

(Thematic - North America & Europe) Map of the Submarine Telegraph Between America & Europe, Korff Bros., 1858
     New infrastructure often overlays the old.
     There are still Roman roads and bridges you can use today. Even aqueducts from the time move water as they did thousands of years prior. Locally, in Colorado, Cochetopa Pass was known to the native Ute peoples as a place that the Buffalo used for crossing the Rocky Mountains (literally named "Pass of the Buffalo"), and was examined by the early Railroad Survey as a means to California. You can drive a really nice road over Cochetopa Pass today, the first well made road across the pass was built in 1858, around the time of this map. There are many instances we can see where the easiest path, the one of least resistance, gets reused by many cultures.
     This map is an infrastructural first. That's a rare premise to site in human development, but this communicational advance is worthy of greater consideration.
     While smaller telegraph lines existed in Europe, this line after several attempts, would connect Europe to America. It was heralded as a new age, and with it came an euphoria not unlike the advent of the internet age, where supposedly this new method of faster and inexpensive communication would usher in the end of war and a new renaissance as people would become more connected than ever. While there had been generations of growing electrical understanding that made it possible, strangely, it was also thanks to the recent discovery of a new rubbery, latex tree sap (from the Gutta percha of Malay) that was electrically non-conductive, that would allow under water cables to be coated and protected from the corrosive sea water.
     Here we see a first iteration of a new infrastructure that would become rooted and essential to the 20th century and centuries to come. This approach and proof of concept would evolve to telephone and internet lines that would support a whole new human experience, unthinkable to generations prior to its creation, and early on would become an advantage to those coastal areas that were early adopters. To be near that immediate telegraph station terminus that extended under the waves was an immediate window to activity and information that previously would have taken days or weeks to receive. It's little wonder that streets, avenues, hills or newspapers would have the word "Telegraph" splashed across them at the time, as it was connoted with a redefining progress and innovation. Now it may seem antiquated, but then it was associating something with the cutting edge of technological advances.
     While its creation was born out of a moment of hubris by Cyrus Field West, it would only be realized after numerous expensive and catastrophic failures, but in terms of human creations, it is an important and historic first. This small map illustrates the achievement's route, and implies a big future that it would unfold. (Keep in mind 98% of international internet traffic, right now, travels by undersea cables)
     Condition is very good with good original hand color, some overall toning to the paper, and a repair to one of the folds which had torn. Close lower margin. Image size is approximately 7.5 x 18.5 (inches).