History of the Atlantic Cable & Submarine Telegraphy

	History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications from the first submarine cable of 1850 to the worldwide fiber optic network
Submarine Cable Route Maps

Early cable route maps were often published in the cable history books. Later maps were issued as promotional items by cable companies and government telecommunications authorities.

Each image links to a larger copy of the map

Map of the 1858 Atlantic Cable route from
Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, August 21, 1858

Another map of the 1858 Atlantic Cable route

Detail of above map

Map of the Telegraph Plateau, from Maury's Physical Geography of the Sea (1869 edition),
showing the routes of the 1858 Atlantic Cable and the proposed 1869 French cable

Australia and China Telegraph, 1859
Existing and proposed lines

1865: Map Shewing the Atlantic Telegraph and other Submarine
Cables in Europe and America from The Atlantic Telegraph.
Note also the route of Tal Shaffner's proposed northern cable.

Detail of North Atlantic section of above map

1870 British Indian Cable
Bombay-Aden, Aden-Suez

1865: Chart of the World Showing the Proposed Submarine & Land
Telegraphs Round the World from The Atlantic Telegraph.

c. 1880 Anglo-American Telegraph Company North Atlantic map

1893 map of North Atlantic cables (center section omitted),
from Charles Bright's Submarine Telegraphs

1901 Eastern Telegraph Company System Map
from A.B.C. Telegraphic Code 5th Edition

North Atlantic detail of above map

1902 British All Red Line map, from Johnson's
The All Red Line - The Annals and Aims of the Pacific Cable Project

1903 Map: Telegraph Construction & Maintenance Co Ltd
Showing submarine telegraph cables the cores of which were manufactured at
The Gutta Percha Works, Wharf Road, City Road, London N.

Move your mouse over the image to see the changes in the cable
routes from 1872 to 1922. Click here for a larger version of the 1922 map

1872 and 1922 Eastern & Associated Route Maps

1924: The Eastern Associated Telegraph Companies' Cable System map

1924 International Cables map from Schreiner: Cables and Wireless
Click for North Atlantic detail of this map

Map of the Philippines, showing route of the cable laid by CS Burnside in 1901,
from Florence Kimball Russell's A Woman's Journey through the Philippines

1982 Pacific region cable map

1983 MedArabTel map of the existing and planned telecommunication network in the Middle East and Mediterranean regions

1983 PanAfTel map - PanAfrican Telecommunication Network

1991 Hong Kong Telecom map of Asian cables

1992 British Telecomm map of
Communications - Around the World

North Atlantic detail of BT map

Anglo-American, Eastern Associated, Hong Kong, MedArabTel, Pacific,
PanAfTel, and British Telecomm maps courtesy of Bill Glover

Last revised: 22 February, 2008

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Research Material Needed

The Atlantic Cable website is non-commercial, and its mission is to make available on line as much information as possible.

You can help - if you have cable material, old or new, please contact me. Cable samples, instruments, documents, brochures, souvenir books, photographs, family stories, all are valuable to researchers and historians.

If you have any cable-related items that you could photograph, copy, scan, loan, or sell, please email me: billb@ftldesign.com