wnp26.1704

Transcontinental Phone Call

January 25, 1915

First public test of the transcontinental telephone line, as seen at the San Francisco end at Pacific Telephone's building at 333 Grant Ave., shortly before the opening of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. In New York, Alexander Graham Bell and others spoke with Mayor James Rolph and other dignitaries in San Francisco, including Thomas A. Watson, who was the recipient of Bell's first words over the telephone in 1876. Bell began the call by repeating those words "Mr. Watson, are you there?" Portrait of Alexander Graham Bell in background.