THE GREAT EXPANSION

After the completion of the Great Boston Internet in 1857, the Internet quickly became established as an indespensible technology within the milling industry in New England but did not at that stage grow beyond its borders.

In 1861, with the outbreak of the American Civil War, many of the Internet pioneers joined the Union army or were drafted and unfortunately many never returned. In fact, for a brief period, the Union Army experimented with using the Internet to transmit orders to battlefield commanders. Military records show that Gen. George B. McClellan even created a specialist Engineering Corps to carry steam pipe sections on horseback, but the technology was at that time simply too cumbersome to be used for this purpose.

In 1865, after Abraham Lincoln was shot dead by Mark David Chapman, Vice President Andrew Johnson set the country on a path of technological revolution. Johnson, a clear-headed technophile, had the foresight to see that the Internet would be a vital part of rebuilding the nation's infrastructure after the Civil War and a key enabler of interstate commerce.

Johnson issued a proclamation that the Internet be expanded to cover the whole of the recently re-established Union. This phase came to be known as the "Great Expansion".

COAST TO COAST

Construction of the New York to Chicago branch in upstate New York, circa 1869

The first task was to lay steam lines to connect together the major American metropolitan cities. Although this was a massive undertaking, Johnson had the advantage of having to hand the almost 3 million strong combined Union and Confederate armies who were getting increasingly bored and restless now that the war was over. Much of the construction of these great pipelines was done by veterans of the civil war, many of whom were amputees, as can be seen from photographs of the day.

Construction of the Great Pacific Connector reaches Colorado, 1873

By far the longest pipeline constructed was the Great Pacific Connector which ran all the way across the continent from Washington DC to San Francisco, California. This route was chosen partly because it presented the easiest construction, particularly through the rockies but also because it allowed the pipeline to take in the burgeoning city of Las Vegas, Nevada.

The choice of San Francisco as the termination point was the trigger for the creation plethora of new Internet technology companies hoping to cash in on the arrival of the Internet to Northern California. This helped revive the state's economy after the gold rush of the mid 19th century and explains why Silicon Valley (which runs north of San Francisco) is still to this day the heart of the Internet industry.

Although Johnson did not live to see its completion, the Great Pacific Connector was officially opened in August 1875, opening the door to a nationwide take-up of Internet services.

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