The Russian-American Telegraph: A Failed Attempt To Connect The World

Map of proposed overland telegraph via the Bering Strait and Asiatic Russia to Europe.

Colton, J. H.

Before social media, email, radio, or even telephones, people communicated by telegraph. It was the telegraph that carried the news of Abraham Lincoln’s death from Ford’s Theater to the furthest reaches of the country in a matter of minutes. But this same news was unknown to Europe for the 11 days it took a steamship to travel to England.

The challenge of running a telegraph cable under the Atlantic Ocean for 2,000 miles had people stumped. But Perry McDonough Collins had a new idea… a Russian-American Telegraph.

He planned to take advantage of the 55-mile stretch of ocean called the Bering Strait between Alaska (then called Russian-America) and Siberia. He theorized that building overland through Canada, Alaska, and Siberia would be a simple task. Promises of easy profits caught the attention of the Western Union Telegraph Company, and construction began in the summer of 1865.

The problem was that the expanses of Alaska and northeastern Siberia had been explored very little by this time, and Collins planned to run his cable across approximately 5,000 miles of a harsh unknown.

Four exploration parties traveled to remote sections of the proposed line to plan, prepare, and begin to build the massive stretch of wire. These parties were faced with dangerously bitter cold, unwelcoming terrain, and supply shortages. Without the help of Indigenous people, the expedition members would have starved.

But the Russian-American Telegraph was scrapped when the transatlantic cable was completed in 1866. It took an entire year for the news to reach the explorers. After two years of grueling work, their progress was abandoned. Their materials were then gathered and used by Alaska Natives, with reports of telegraph wire becoming fishing nets, fencing for reindeer corrals, and even suspension bridges.

The expeditions for the Russian-American Telegraph were some of the first American ventures into remote Alaskan wilderness, and the stories inspired others to do the same. Although the project failed, it brought attention to the region. In 1867, the United States purchased the territory of Alaska from Russia. The rest is history.