Morse in 1840
On October 18th, 1842, Samuel Morse had a telegraph cable laid from the Battery in Lower Manhattan to Governor’s Island. From a booth at Castle Garden (today’s Castle Clinton) he successfully transmitted messages. It is believed to be the first successful submarine telegraph cable. Unfortunately, the next day the cable was inadvertently hauled up by the crew of a merchant ship and Morse’s experiment abruptly ended. However, the next year Morse would receive funding from Congress to build a telegraphic cable from Baltimore to Washington.