Western Union Stopped. STOP.
Although some News wires list 145 or 154 years, it is really after more than 161 years from the first telegraphed message, Western Union delivered its last telegram Friday.
And what a run it was; announcements of the birth of a baby or the dreaded notice of the death of a relative or loved one.
Messages of thanks, of sorrow over personal loss, of joyful events. If it had to be communicated swiftly, it had to be by telegram.
Although modern technology has not yet completely killed the typewriter, it certainly has made the telegram completely obsolete.
I await the death of the home phone connected by wire to some central office.
When I started my phone business back in 1994 our equipment racks were in the Western Union Building at 60 Hudson Street in New York. Beautifully built in the art deco style, the lobby reminds one of Union Station in LA.
The building for many years has not housed telegraph lines but instead is home to hundreds of phone companies and probably has enough wiring to stretch out to the Sun.
