Episode 3 of 3

Initial Operation and Costs

When: October 24–31, 1861
Where: National network
Part of: Western Union completes the first transcontinental telegraph

First messages sent to President Lincoln; initial charges were $1 per word, exceeding the 30-cent statutory limit.

The first messages were sent to President Abraham Lincoln. The charge during the first week was US$1 per word, whereas the Telegraph Act of 1860 had specified 30 cents. This discrepancy highlights the economic realities of the new service.

Sources

Western Union Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-09
First transcontinental telegraph Wikipedia, revision of 2025-09-21

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.