Includes bibliographical references (p. 126-128) and index.

The dawn of telecommunications -- Alexander Graham Bell and the harmonic telegraph -- A neck-and-neck race -- A cloud of suspicion -- Selling the telephone and taking on a telegraph giant -- Building a national and unified telephone network -- From nationwide competition to coast-to-coast monopoly -- An age of innovation -- The telephone industry transformed.

Alexander Graham Bell's request to his assistant to "come here" revolutionized the way America's citizens communicated with one another. Bell's humble but transformative invention, the telephone, remains a crucial part of daily life and is used by billions of people worldwide every day. The far-reaching telephone network drew in America's most isolated citizens and gathered almost everyone into a simultaneously intimate and national conversation. Then, a nation of prairie farmers, small-town families, and big-city tycoons could connect over great distances. Now, it is impossible to imagine the technological and social achievements of the twentieth century without the telephone's integration into society.

Building America: Then And Now celebrates the most famous and important construction projects that changed the United States from an open frontier to the most important country in the world. Read about American ingenuity and innovation, feats of courage, and marvels of engineering in the dramatic stories of the great projects that united a nation and advanced the world.