There are numerous telegraph stations that have been important individually in the history of Australia, the United States, and other countries, and there are systems of telegraph stations that have collectively been important during the 19th century and early 20th century. In 1853, it was asserted that there were 4,000 miles of telegraph lines in Great Britain, 27,000 miles in the United States, and it was expected that 4,000 miles of telegraph lines would soon be built in India. The telegraph lines required repeater stations and/or repair stations. In addition to stations along traditional telegraph lines, there were also a number of notable wireless telegraph stations that were important for communication to and from ships.
Charles B. Barr published in 1853 a map of telegraph stations "in the United States, the Canadas, and Nova Scotia" which showed stations in Canada West, Canada East, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.[6]
Disturnell's 1851 map of canals, railways, telegraph lines, and stagecoach lines, shows similar detail in Canada and in the United States.[7]
A list of telegraph stations in the United Kingdom was compiled irregularly, including in 1876, 1882, 1885, and 1889.[8]
Charles B. Barr's 1853 map of telegraph stations "in the United States, the Canadas, and Nova Scotia" showed telegraph lines extending to the west in the U.S. as far as Alexandria, Louisiana, St. Joseph, Missouri, Muscatine, Iowa and Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin.[6] Disturnell's 1851 map of canals, railways, telegraph lines, and stagecoach lines, shows similar detail in the United States and in Canada.[7]
See main article: First Transcontinental Telegraph. The First Transcontinental Telegraph was a telegraph line completed in 1861 that joined the eastern United States to California. It supplanted the Pony Express. It was authorized by the Pacific Telegraph Act of 1860.
The Deutschland incident (1902) illustrated the value and issues with wireless telegraph stations.
A 1908 publication by the U.S. Department of the Navy listed on-shore and off-shore wireless telegraph stations of the world. It included a list of shore stations of the world (by country), a list of merchant vessels (by ship line), as well as United States Army, United States Navy, and United States Revenue Cutter Service stations and vessels.[9] The publication was revised and reissued in 1910 and 1912.