Laying the trans-Atlantic telegraph cable

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One of the great engineering achievements of the 19th Century was the laying of the tans-Atlantic telegraph cable which greatly reduced the time needed to communicate between the old world and the new. The first attempt was laid between 1854 and 1858 but failed after only three weeks. In the the late 1860s a second attempt was made and two cables were put into service.

These cables were laid by the SS Great Eastern. Abord that ship was the artist Robert Charles Dudley who painted a series of watercolors chronicling the effort. There are more images after the jump.