The first utility poles in America weren’t really supposed to be there. It was 1843, and telegraph inventor Samuel Morse was granted $30,000 by the U.S. Congress to construct a line that could send messages more quickly than had ever been possible before. Morse started by trying to bury the cable to carry the messages underground, from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, about 40 miles away—but it didn’t work. Running short of time and money, Morse and his team desperately decided to hang the telegraph wire above ground on posts and…
