Today’s multibillion-dollar telecommunications industry owes a debt of gratitude to Cape Cod’s Atlantic shore. The first cable connection between Europe and the US was established in 1879 by the French Telegraph Company on a windswept bluff in Eastham. When conditions there proved inhospitable, the station was moved to Orleans in 1890, and until the mid-20th century the French Cable Station transmitted communications via a 3000-mile-long cable between Orleans and Brest, France. Charles Lindbergh’s arrival in Paris and Germany’s invasion of France were among the messages relayed. The French Cable Museum in Orleans contains all the original equipment, and staff help explain everything.
