How the First Transatlantic Cable Changed the World (Then Immediately Broke) | Smartest Year Ever (Apr 30, 2025)

 In 1858, a cable was laid across the Atlantic Ocean—a 2,500-mile-long copper wire connecting Europe and North America for the first time. It was a technological marvel, a symbol of progress, and the "eighth wonder of the world"... for three weeks.

This episode dives into how the first transatlantic telegraph cable changed global communication—before it was fried by a man named Wildman Whitehouse. Gordy explores the wild story of Victorian ambition, why we still rely on undersea cables today, and what became of all that copper.

The first message took 17 hours to transmit. The first cable didn’t last much longer. But it was just enough to change the world forever.

Music thanks to Zapsplat.

Sources:

• Standage, T. (1998). The Victorian Internet. Walker & Company.
  

• Smithsonian Institution. (n.d.). The Transatlantic Cable. National Museum of American History. https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_713478
  

• PBS. (n.d.). Transatlantic Cable Timeline. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/cable-timeline/
  

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