Guglielmo Marconi, Edward VII, and Theodore Roosevelt
Wellfleet, Barnstable County, Massachusetts
Marker Inscription
Site of the first United States transatlantic wireless telegraph station built in 1901-1902. Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America predecessor of RCA transmitted January 19, 1903 the first U.S. transatlantic wireless telegram addressed to Edward VII King of England by Theodore Roosevelt President of the United States of America
Erected by Wellfleet Historical Society
The Story
On the Wellfleet bluffs Guglielmo Marconi's company built the first U.S. transatlantic wireless station in 1901–1902, part of the race to send messages across the ocean without cables. In January 1903 the station carried the first U.S. transatlantic wireless telegram, an exchange of greetings between President Theodore Roosevelt and King Edward VII. Marconi's American venture would later become a predecessor of RCA.
Why it matters
The station marks the dawn of instantaneous transatlantic communication, a leap that shrank the distance between nations and helped launch the modern age of wireless.
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Related people
- · Guglielmo Marconi
- · Theodore Roosevelt
- · Edward VII
Related events
- · First U.S. transatlantic wireless telegram (1903)
Themes & tags
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Marconi Station Site
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On the wind-scoured dunes of Cape Cod, Guglielmo Marconi's company raised a ring of towering wooden masts and, in January 1903, sent the first transatlantic wireless message originating on American soil — a greeting exchanged between President Theodore Roosevelt and King Edward VII of Great Britain. The station, built in 1901–1902 by the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America, proved that words could leap the ocean with no cable beneath them. The Atlantic surf has since claimed the original towers, but the bluff where they stood remains a birthplace of modern communication.
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