Alta Telegraph Company

The Alta Telegraph Company was a telegraph company which operated in the mid-19th century within the state of California prior to the construction of the Transcontinental Telegraph. It was incorporated in the early 1850s. Its first line was constructed during 1854, stretching from Sacramento to Marysville and extending up into the foothills of the adjacent Sierra Nevada mountains. In subsequent years, a line was constructed between Sacramento and Benicia. From Benicia, a branch line was extended to Vallejo and the US Navy yard at Mare Island.

Telegraph Road

In April 1859, a cable was run across the Carquinez Strait between Benicia and Martinez,^[1] and a connecting line constructed from Martinez to Oakland over the Berkeley Hills (then called the Contra Costa Range).^[2] It was this line which gave rise to the name "Telegraph Road" for the thoroughfare which the line followed down the western slope of the hills, which later became Telegraph Avenue in Oakland and Berkeley.

Lawsuit

From Oakland, the Alta Telegraph Company laid a cable under San Francisco Bay to San Francisco, but the cable failed to work. An alternate route was then used, extending around the southern end of the bay via San Jose. This route, however, was already used by the competing California State Telegraph Company under a special act of the State of California. The California State Telegraph Company successfully sued the Alta Telegraph Company for infringing on what they considered a monopoly grant. The suit was upheld by the California Supreme Court.^[3]

Mergers

Soon after the lawsuit, the Alta Telegraph Company decided to merge into the California State Telegraph Company, which itself was eventually incorporated into the nationwide Western Union.

References