Essay About Pony Express And Completion Of The Transcontinental Telegraph Line

Pony Express
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On April 3rd, 1860, the Pony Express started. The
first rider named Henry Wallace left St. Joseph,
Missouri. On April 13th the last rider reached
Sacramento, California. To become a rider you had to
be a brave young man, and an orphan, because it was a
dangerous job. They had to be very good riders, and
able to shoot well. And they must not fear Indian
attacks. Every rider had to ride sixty miles at very
high speed. He had to travel the 60 miles with six
different ponies and in six hours. Every day except on
Sundays a rider left Missouri at 12 oclock. The rider
in Sacramento arrived at 8 oclock in the morning. The
pony express lasted only for one and a half-year. The
completion of the transcontinental telegraph line
between Missouri and California was the reason the
pony express ended. “Tele” means distant and
“graphein” means to write, in Greek. They could send
messages and news over long distance. The first
inventor of the telegraph was Samuel Finley Breese
Morse. Groups working to finish the transcontinental
telegraph meet at Fort Bridger in Utah territory. The
first transcontinental telegraph was sent from San
Francisco to Washington. The message was from the
states Chief Justice to President Lincoln. The
telegraph line only went as far west as St. Joseph,
Missouri in 1860. It was 2,000 miles from St. Joseph
to the West Coast as Sacramento, California. It took
over months for messages to be carried by ships, wagon
trains, or stagecoaches to reach California. They
needed a faster way for mail and messages to get to
the West Coast. A system of horse riders, called the
Pony Express was started. The riders would bring the
mail quicker. The first rider of the Pony Express left
St. Joseph, Missouri, on April 3, 1860. The stations
where the riders could stop were 10 to 15 miles apart
from each other. At some stations, a rider could get a
new horse. Each rider had to ride about 75 miles
before the mail was passed on to another rider. The
schedule allowed eight days for mail to be carried
from Missouri to California. The Pony Express was much
faster than carrying mail and messages by ships, wagon
trains, or stagecoach. The man who managed the Pony
Express system was Alexander Majors, from Kentucky. At
one time it cost $5 to send a letter weighing half an
ounce to California. Later on it cost $1 per half
ounce. The fastest Pony Express run was in 1861 when
President Lincoln was inaugurated. His speech for the
inaugural was carried to California in seven days and
seventeen hours. One of the most famous riders was
Buffalo Bill Cody. In October of 1861 the first
telegraph line was completed. It connected through
California. With the telegraph line, messages could be
sent in minutes not days. In two days, the Pony
Express began to lose business, and it ended. The Pony
Express riders had given the United States a vital
service for eighteen months. What Affects Did the
Transcontinental Telegraph have On the Pony Express?
By: Laura Simonetti 1003 “Pony Express”, Comptons
Interactive Encyclopedia. Soft key Multimedia Inc.
1996 The Southern Overland mail where Wells Fargo came
to own a controlling interest was founded on Sept. 15,
1858 by John Butterfield. Butterfield was an American
Express Company director. The Overland Mail
stagecoaches went from St. Louis to San Francisco in
24 days through desert, mountains and bands of hostile
Indians. There were little Pony Expresses before 1860.
The Pony Express that rode its way into American
legend was started by Russell, Majors, and Waddell on
April 3, 1860. Russell, Majors, and Waddell had its
Pony Express riders travel over a central route 2,000
miles between St. Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento,
California in ten days. If it did do it in ten days,
it would beat the time taken by Butter fields Southern
Overland to cross the continent. The Pony Express was
successful at a time, but it was a financial failure.
It lost its owners more than $200,000 in eighteen
months of its existence. It played a big role in
establishing rapid communications between the north