Summary

This edition of the "American Experience" series focuses on one of the greatest engineering marvels of the 19th century: the laying of the undersea transatlantic cable between the United States and Great Britain. It took 12 years (1854-66) for project head Cyrus Field (a New York paper magnate) and his associates to finish the job of laying nearly 2,000 miles of cable across the Atlantic Ocean (often at a depth of three miles).