The Guam Cable Station is where the United States territory of

Guam Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic ce ...

was first connected via modern telecommunications to the rest of the world. Reduced to ruins by the fighting of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the ruins of the establishment remain on the grounds of Naval Base Guam on the west side of the island.

History

In 1901, the Commercial Pacific Cable Company offered to lay a cable between the

continental United States The contiguous United States (officially the conterminous United States) consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the Federal District of the United States of America. The term excludes the only two non-contiguous states, Alaska and Hawaii ...

and Guam at no cost to the federal government. In 1903 the company began construction of a series of buildings near what was the village of

Sumay Sumay, also Sumai, was a village on the United States territory of Guam. It was located on the north coast of the Orote Peninsula along Apra Harbor. It was inhabited by Chamorro people before contact with Europeans. Sumay became a prosperous port ...

. Designed to be proof against typhoons, earthquakes, and other perils, the complex included the main cable station building, several buildings of living quarters, and a self-contained water supply system. The cable connecting Guam to

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only ...

was completed in June 1903, marking the complete encirclement of the globe by communications cables. This station became a major communications hub, eventually also housing cables to China and the island of Yap, and becoming an early-warning center for typhoons. Operation of the cable was interrupted by the Japanese invasion of Guam in 1941. It resumed with the liberation of Guam in 1944, but continued only until 1951, when the cable between Guam and Hawaii was broken. Since then the remains of the cable station have been succumbing to the elements. Its remains were listed on the National Register of Historic Places listings in Guam in 1979.

References

Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Guam Buildings and structures completed in 1903 Communications in Guam * World War II on the National Register of Historic Places in Guam 1903 establishments in Guam Sumay, Guam Telecommunications buildings on the National Register of Historic Places {{Guam-struct-stub